Watch: Against England at Durban during the 2003 World Cup, Ashish Nehra claimed 6-23 then ate a banana and threw up next to the pitch.
Ahead of the India-England clash, Andy Caddick had said “Sachin’s [Tendulkar] just like another batsman in the Indian team, and there are a lot of others in the Indian side.”
Not long after the match began, Tendulkar responded by lofting Caddick (3-69) into the car park en route to a 52-ball 50. Rahul Dravid (62) and Yuvraj Singh (42) weighed in as well, but India lost a wicket off each of the last four balls of the innings and made 250-9.
India had gone in with two fast bowlers, Javagal Srinath and Zaheer Khan, for the first two matches. For the Zimbabwe match, they replaced Kumble with Nehra, who bowled first-change for his 7-0-35-0.
Against Namibia, Nehra had opened the bowling with Srinath, but slipped after bowling one ball and took no further part in the match. Against England, he came into the game with a ‘dicky ankle’ and 30 wickets in 32 ODIs.
Now, Zaheer bowled the first over ahead of Srinath. In the second over, Mohammad Kaif sprinted in to run out Nick Knight, while Zaheer had Marcus Trescothick caught in the seventh.
With the ball moving around in the Durban evening, Michael Vaughan and captain Nasser Hussain saw off the initial threat, and England were 52-2 in the 17th over when Nehra came to bowl to Hussain.
He first had Hussain caught behind and, off the next ball, Alec Stewart leg-before. Vaughan attempted to slash at one in his next over and could only edge it behind.
Paul Collingwood hung around before edging to first slip. And in his last over – he bowled all ten on the trot – Nehra had Craig White caught behind and Ronnie Irani caught at second slip. He finished with 10-2-23-6, the only six-wicket haul by an Indian at the World Cup.
Having done all that, Nehra accepted a banana from substitute fielder from substitute fielder Parthiv Patel. “This is all that you get for six [wickets] – a banana, well, give him a bit more than that,” exclaimed David Lloyd on air – but Nehra threw up next to the pitch shortly afterwards.
“It’s one of the best performances in a one-day international that I have seen since I started playing for India,” admitted Sourav Ganguly after the match.
One can see why. Of the 60 balls he bowled that day, five were over pitched and one was too short. Each of the others was of impeccable length.
