Shoaib Akhtar bowled a beamer to MS Dhoni that went for five wides in the 2006 Test. (File Photo/AFP)
Shoaib Akhtar recalled that a young MS Dhoni had frustrated him so much that he had bowled a beamer at the batsman — the first time he had done such a thing — in the second Test of the 2006 series between India and Pakistan in Faisalabad.
“I think I had bowled a 8-9 over spell in Faisalabad. It was a quick spell and Dhoni scored a hundred. I purposely bowled a beamer to Dhoni and then apologised to him,” Akhtar told Aakash Chopra on his YouTube channel on Saturday.
“It was the first time in my life I had bowled a beamer purposely. I shouldn’t have done it. I regretted it a lot. He was playing so well and the wickets were so slow. However fast I was bowling, he kept on hitting. I think I got frustrated,” he said.
Akhtar added that beamers should not be part of the game.
Dhoni, then 25 years of age, had scored his maiden Test century – an incredible knock of 148 — in the first innings of the Faisalabad Test.
In the spell mentioned by Akhtar, Dhoni had taken on the Pakistan pacer, hitting him for three fours in an over. Akhtar reacted by changing his angle to round the wicket and then bowled a beamer to the India wicketkeeper. However, the ball was wayward and it went to the fence for five wides.