Watch: In 2012/13, Monty Panesar bowled one of the greatest balls in the history of Test cricket to clean up Sachin Tendulkar in Mumbai, the latter’s home town.
“It was a great ball. It was something that I would say was probably a better ball than Shane Warne [to Mike Gatting],” Panesar would himself say later. One can see his point.
There were many heroes in England’s historic 2-1 triumph in 2012/13 – till date, the last series win by a touring side in India.
Kevin Pietersen made a dazzling 186 to turn the second Test match. Alastair Cook got three hundreds. Matt Prior made 258 runs at 51.60 down the order and kept wicket beautifully. James Anderson bowled beautifully, while Steven Finn rose to expectations in Kolkata.
But towering over others were the spinners, Panesar (17 wickets at 26.82) and Graeme Swann (20 at 24.75), who shared 37 of the 55 wickets that went to English bowlers.
Nineteen of these were in Mumbai, where Panesar (5-129 and 6-81) and Swann (4-70 and 4-43) shared 121.2 of England’s 159.2 overs for their 19 wickets.
Panesar got Tendulkar in the first innings, on a pitch that was not even 19 overs old. He had bowled Virender Sehwag in his previous over, but Tendulkar had looked solid. He had flicked a full-toss from Panesar earlier in the over, then defended two consecutive balls.
The ball pitched on leg-stump at 95.4 kph, quicker than Panesar’s usual pace. Tendulkar played to the line, probably covering the turn he expected in the 10th over from that end. The ball turned past the bat and hit top of off-stump.
More than six years ago, Panesar had trapped Tendulkar leg-before to pick up his maiden Test wicket. Since then, he had got him LBW at Lord’s in 2007. In this Test match, he would get him again, when he would bowl unchanged through the Indian second innings to skittle them out for 142.
