XtraTime Web Desk: India have produced some outstanding left arm swing bowlers over the years ranging from the likes of Karsan Ghavri, Irfan Pathan, Zaheer Khan, Ashish Nehra to the very recent Khaleel Ahmed and Barinder Sran. Among the above names the performance of a lanky left arm seamer.
during the 2003 World Cup clash against England in Durban will rank as one of the best. The English batsmen struggled to find an answer to Ashish Nehra’s controlled swing bowling that night in Kingsmead. Nehra, who returned with an incredible 6/23, was born on this day in 1979.
There was huge question mark about Nehra getting picked to play that fixture against England. He was not considered for the opening two encounters. To make matters worse, he injured his ankle after bowling just one delivery in his first game of the tournament against Namibia in Pietermartizburg.
The night before the England game, Indian captain Sourav Ganguly went to Nehra’s room to enquire about his swollen ankle. A fitness test was organized for the seamer the following day. To the relief of the team management, team’s physio Andrew Leipus, and trainer, Adrian Le Roux declared Nehra fit to play.
“I remember going to Kingsmead in the morning for a fitness test and fortunately passing it. Our physio, Andrew Leipus, and trainer, Adrian Le Roux, had worked hard for three to four days to get me back on the field as quickly as possible and I couldn’t thank them enough,” Nehra was quoted by Cricinfo.
It was a crucial fixture as a loss against England would have made things difficult for the Indian team to qualify for the Super Six. Sourav Ganguly won an important toss and did not hesitate to bat first. Openers Virender Sehwag (23) and Sachin Tendulkar gave India a decent start adding 60 runs for the first wicket. Tendulkar reached his fifty (50 off 52 balls) and was looking good for a big score before he was undone by a delivery from Andrew Flintoff giving a catch to Paul Collingwood. The Indians had a steady partnership during the middle overs with useful contributions from Dinesh Mongia (32 off 66), Rahul Dravid (62 off 72) and Yuvraj Singh (42 off 38). A late strike from Rahul took the score to 250/9.
Xhasing 251 to win, England had a disastrous start with Nick Knight (1) running himself out courtesy a brilliant piece of fielding by Md Kaif. Marcus Trescothick (8) too did not last long when he was caught by Tendulkar off the bowling of Zaheer Khan. England was in a spot with 18/2. What followed next was an inspiring spell of swing bowling from Nehra under the lights. He bowled 10 overs at a stretch, ending up with figures of 6 for 23, the best analysis by an Indian in World Cup history.
Sourav Ganguly in his post match conference said, “He’s had a swollen ankle for two days and it was sheer determination that made him play. He bowled a fantastic line. It’s one of the best performances in a One-Day International that I have seen since I started playing for India.”
Truly, that spell from Ashish Nehra will go down as the best among the left arm swing bowlers to have donned the blue jersey.