India has off late, become the master at giving it back to the opponents whenever they try to sledge. However, they have been letting them know what their feel by letting the ball or the bat do the talking for long. Here are 7 of the best instances of opponents regretting to sledge India:
McGrath vs Sachin:
In the 2001 series between India and Australia, the world was able to enjoy watching two of the finest players for their countries, Sachin and Mcgrath at the absolute peak best. During the game at Chennai, Mcgrath tried to sledge Sachin and get a reaction out of him by continually bowling bouncers.
As he bowled one, he imitated the pull shot and dared Sachin to play it. Sachin, calm as always did not respond to the taunts. When Mcgrath returned for another spell, the Little Master hooked him for a six before playing two silky cover drives to put him back in his place.
Alec Stewart vs Sourav Ganguly:
One of the best debuts any cricketer would have ever had belongs to Sourav Ganguly. The left-hander managed to smash centuries in his first two Tests, that too in foreign conditions to stamp his arrival in the game.
During his first game, Alec Stewart tried to sledge him by loudly urging the rest of the English bowlers to get him out quickly. Ganguly, who never holds back, went up to Stewart and asked him to let him enjoy his debut in peace and told Stewart that he had already played 100 Tests, so there was no need for such behaviour.
Shoaib Akthar vs Sehwag:
One of the most memorable cricketing knocks from an Indian came from Virender Sehwag during his superb 319 at Multan back in 2004. During that innings, Sehwag punished the Pakistanis with some superb counter-attacking batting.
At one point, speedster Akthar tried to provoke Sehwag to go after him by bowling short bouncers. Though unperturbed, Sehwag asked the fielders around if Akthar was asking or begging to be hit.
Abdul Qadir vs Sachin Tendulkar:
During his debut tour of Pakistan back in 1989, Sachin was just 16 years old as he started showing glimpses of his greatness and ability. Needing 69 runs off around 5 overs, Sachin went after a younger Pakistani chap, Mushtaq Ahmed to up the run rate.
The senior bowler, Abdul Qadir then challenged Sachin and asked him to hit him off his bowling. Sachin obliged by blazing 28 runs in his over, including three sixes consecutively.
Andre Nel vs Sreesanth:
One of the most popular incidences of sledging gone wrong against the Indians, Andre Nel was at the receiving end of a Sreesanth special back in 2006. Bowling to the Indian tail-ender, Nel provoked Sreesanth by telling him to respect the player that he was.
Sreesanth was having none of it as he came down the track and hit Nel over his head for a massive six. He then twirled the bat in his hand and danced in front of Nel to show him that he was not intimidated one bit.
Yuvraj Singh vs Flintoff/Broad:
The most historic over in T20I history all started off because Andrew Flintoff tried to get under Yuvraj Singh’s skin during their encounter at Durban. A charged up Yuvi, who had just come on to bat, vented his fury at Stuart Broad.
In the 17th over, Broad bowled to Yuvraj and was hit for six 6’s to all parts of the ground. The over is one of the most popular ones in cricketing history and Flintoff played a massive part in allowing it to happen.
Aamir Sohail vs Venkatesh Prasad:
The most iconic sledging backfire has to be the Aamir Sohail vs Venkatesh Prasad encounter back in 1996 World Cup. Chasing 288, Pakistan were cruising at 84 in just 10 overs when Sohail decided to act cocky.
He hit Prasad for a four and then arrogantly told the bowler to go fetch the ball from the boundary. Prasad then bowled an absolute beauty that sent the batsman’s stump cartwheeling and signalling the downfall for Pakistan from there on.
By Rohit Nair
