In 2008, Shoaib Akhtar was in the team of Kolkata Knight Riders. And in his first match only he brightened the entire stadium with his brilliant performance as he picked 4 wickets for only 11 and ran all over Delhi Daredevils of Virendra Sehwag. In that match Shoib Akhtar was outstanding and entire Eden Gardens was up altogether.
Even Shah Rukh Khan (the owner of KKR) started running all around the field. Recollecting the memories, Akhtar said that when he took 4 wickets in the Eden Garden, everyone went mad. Even Shahrukh Khan was so excited that he was running all over the field. It seems like he won the world cup and Shah Rukh praised him & said that he won a very important match for KKR.
At the time of the first season, Akhtar was one of the KKR’s amazing players and on that occasion, Sourav Ganguly spoke about the experience of the top class fast-bowler.
Shoaib Akhtar’s Speed Makes A Difference
” I knew the strong speed of Shoaib, which was required in the shortest format to make a difference. And it did. We brilliantly wiped out the contentious Delhi of Virendra Sehwag as they were cleaned up by the Rawalpindi Express and Eden roared in delight. For 11 runs, Shoaib had taken four wickets and we claimed a low-scoring match. This was one of our most memorable successes, but it was challenging to maintain,” Ganguly noted in his book.
He also added that ” Handling Shoaib proved to be tougher than I had expected. Shoaib immediately decided not to play anymore, instead of turning the game around for us. Despite my repeated requests, he withdrew after making only three appearances,”
” He said he was injured but for me it was mysterious. I requested him that he had only four overs to send down. I also said he can manage with a small injury. But it was tough to get him to the ground,” Sourav Ganguly continued to write.
