5 times opening bowlers bowled 10 overs on the trot

Mohammad Asif

Mohammad Asif had often been in the news for all sorts of wrong reasons and he has none but him to blame for the shameful incidents that marred his otherwise glorious cricket career.

Asif at his best was unplayable for most batsmen in the world. A prime example is a spell of 10-overs he bowled in Durban in February 2007.

It was the second match of the five-match ODI series between South Africa and Pakistan. South Africa led the series 1-0 at that point and Pakistan had to get back in Durban to keep their hopes of winning the series alive.

They batted first and did rather well. Younis Khan and Mohammad Yousuf batted beautifully after Imran Nazir scored a quick-fire fifty at the top of the batting order. Shahid Afridi's 35-ball 77 helped Pakistan score 120 runs off the final 10 overs of their innings. Andre Nel and Mkhaya Ntini were taken to the cleaners as the visitors posted a mammoth total of 351 for 4 on the board.

Durban under lights has often been tricky for the batsmen ( remember Ashish Nehra's 6 for 23 in the 2003 World Cup?) but South Africa's response was promising at the beginning. They were unable to score freely off Asif but they scored plenty off the bowling of Rana Naved and Abdul Razzaq. Asif picked up the crucial wickets of Graeme Smith and Herschelle Gibbs to stall their progress.

Asif bowled his ten overs on the trot and finsihed with stunning figures of 2 for 29. On the other end, Naved was going at 10.75 an over and Razzaq at 7.2 an over. This is what makes Asif's spell such a special one. He didn't take too many wickets, neither did he win the man of the match award. But he played a crucial role in Pakistan's emphatic victory by a margin of 141 runs.

A great display of fast bowling which is largely forgotten.