Wanted to smash James Anderson’s head with my bat, recalls Saeed Ajmal
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Former Pakistan cricketer Saeed Ajmal has recalled an incident from their tour of England in 2010 when James Anderson was bowling bouncers at him and in turn, he wanted to smash the bowler’s head with his bat. Ajmal had expected of Anderson to bowl rather than short-pitched deliveries.
Veteran off-spinner Saeed Ajmal recalled an incident from the second Test, in Birmingham, of the four-match Test series against England. While Pakistan were all out for 72 in the first innings, England had answered with a 251. The tourists found their way back into the game in their next innings as Zulqarnain Haider scored a brave 88 and found partnership in Saeed Ajmal late in the innings.
Pakistan were struggling at 153/7 when Ajmal came into bat. However, the England bowlers targeted the tailender with bouncers. While the veteran off-spinner had managed to score his only half-century in Test cricket, he recalled how furious he was at Anderson and his short-pitched deliveries.
“When they took the new ball, Anderson came up to me and said ‘Are you ready for bouncers?’ and I told him that I don’t know English. I thought he joking since I am a tailender and he would probably bowl straight and get me out,” Ajmal said in a YouTube video as quoted by Cricket Pakistan.
“But they fired a barrage of bouncers at me. When I got hit by six or seven bouncers, I told Zulqarnain that I want to smash Anderson’s head with my bat. Then I decided to go for my shots. I tried to step out of my crease and hit a couple of bouncers. Then the ball started coming on to my bat and I ended up with a fifty.”
Due to Haider and Ajmal’s eighth-wicket partnership of 115 runs, Pakistan were able to put on 296 runs, but England chased the target (118) down while only losing one wicket.
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