Wasim Akram, the legendary Pakistan pacer, has recounted the time he faced up to Allan Donald as a youngster and ended up with 20 stitches.

Akram, speaking on the Basit Ali Show on YouTube, was picking out his top three bowlers when he remembered this incident, which occurred in the County Championship when he turned out for Lancashire.

“I have twenty stitches here, right under my chin,” Akram said. “I think the year was 1989 and I had gone out to bat at No.8 on an uneven pitch. He bowled a short delivery and he bowled easily in excess of 150kph. I was also a youngster, in my early twenties, and I tried to pull the ball. It hit the top edge of the bat and hit me under the chin.”

At the hospital, Akram remembered he had to see a dentist, as the injury needed treatment both on the chin as well as inside his mouth. “I went to the hospital, and the dentist had to put 10 stitches on the inside and 10 on the outside as it was a deep cut,” he said. “The doctor said, ‘Take rest for a couple of days, don’t bowl’, but I said I want to go out there and bowl.

“I had a psyche for revenge, I knew I will not leave this bowler [Donald]. I bowled in the evening and we won the match. Donald never came out to bat because he was scared,” Akram added with a laugh.