Before there was Graeme Swann, there was Shaun Udal. In what happened to be the last of his only four Tests, he weaved his magic at a time when England needed it the most, helping his side to a series-levelling win at Mumbai’s Wankhede Stadium in 2006.
First published in 2010 as part of All Out Cricket’s Better Than Sex series
With Andrew Flintoff in charge and denuded of six key personnel through injury and unavailability, England’s winter tour of the subcontinent in 2005/06 looked set to follow a familiar path.
Unable to raise themselves from an Ashes-infused high, the tourists were well-beaten in Pakistan. They headed to India to complete their touring commitments and promptly fell behind in the series. They needed to win the final rubber at the fabulously named – and every schoolboy’s favourite – Wankhede Stadium in Mumbai to share the spoils.
In the squad was veteran off-spinner Shaun Udal, then but-a-slip-of-a-lad aged 37 and last picked for national honours 11 years previous. A Test debut on the Pakistan leg had been and gone and, until the final innings of the tour, four wickets had been secured in four matches. It was, to be honest, shaping up as an inauspicious return. But things were to change. And dramatically so.
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Setting the home side 313 to win on the last day, after having been bowled out themselves, a win for either side looked unlikely. With India on 75-3 but with Rahul Dravid and Sachin Tendulkar at the crease and looking impregnable, ‘One-nil to the In-di-a’ seemed the only possible series outcome.
But when Dravid was removed by Flintoff, there appeared to be a door slightly ajar. Even if it was just ever-so-slightly. Enter Shaun Udal. Up he trots. A whirl of arms. A perfect off-break. Drift. Spin. Bounce. Inside edge. From bat to knee-roll and into Ian Bell’s hands at short-leg. Sachin was out, outfoxed in fact, by the crafty veteran.
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Shaun Udal goes on a celebratory run after dismissing Tendulkar[/caption]
And from there the game was over in a glorious, hectic instant. The lower-order caved in, three more to Udal. All heaved into the outfield and caught. England had taken seven wickets in 75 post-lunch minutes and ended a 21-year win-less streak in India.
It proved a career-high for the stalwart off-spinner, unknowingly in his last Test appearance. But what a high to go out on. If he isn’t regularly dining out on the ball that did for Sachin, then serious questions have to be asked of the British public. Because for that one perfectly perfect peach of a ball, Shaun Udal was better than sex.
