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The swing thing - Imran runs through

Imran decimated the Indian top order in the second innings with a spell of 5 for 3 in 25 balls

15-Nov-2007


Sunil Gavaskar was just one of Imran Khan's victims in that deadly spell in 1982-83 © The Cricketer
Electrifying passages revisits ten great passages of play that exemplify the intensity and passion of the rivalry between India and Pakistan ...
Imran decimated the Indian top order in the second innings with a spell of 5 for 3 in 25 balls. He finished with 8 for 60, and Pakistan won by an innings and 86 runs.
Wasim Bari
I remember it as a really fast and aggressive spell. Imran's inswingers were quite unique and different from the kind that Wasim Akram and Waqar Younis bowled. In comparison to Imran, they didn't reverse swing the ball nearly as much. His was huge, booming swing, and totally typical of him.
Keeping to him was a real challenge in that spell because he was swinging it so much. I used to stand really wide of off stump to pick his line and then adjust accordingly. It's difficult to pick out one wicket that was special from that spell because they were all spectacular. Sunil Gavaskar was bowled to one that dipped in really sharply. Vishy [Gundappa Viswanath] as well; and Mohinder Amarnath was lbw. All three were exceptional players of pace bowling, which tells you how good that spell was.
The Maharajah of Baroda, who was the Indian team manager, had said to me earlier on the tour: "We have a batting line-up, till No. 11, and nothing can go through them." I said, "You haven't seen Imran yet because even if you have 15, he'll go through you."
Bari kept wicket for Pakistan in the game. Interviewed by Osman Samiuddin.
Arun Lal
The wicket was a placid one, good for making runs. But Imran bowled this phenomenal spell and erased our top order. There was a bit of cross-breeze, and once the shine was off the ball, Imran got into business. We were completely caught unawares by the huge amount of swing that he managed to get - both ways. We asked ourselves how he could do that when our own bowlers, including Kapil Dev, who was known for swinging it, couldn't.
Imran himself was more popular for bowling fast, digging it in short and hitting the ribcage - more of a tearaway than a swinger. But in this game he got it to swing both ways with the new ball, and then got reverse swing too, which we didn't even know existed.
The one wicket that summarises his efforts was that of Viswanath, who shouldered arms to an off-side delivery; the ball suddenly swung back in, a couple of feet almost, and disturbed his off stump. He didn't know what was happening; no one did. It was like a secret weapon that was unleashed, and we couldn't defend ourselves.
Arun Lal made 35 and 11. Interviewed by Nagraj Gollapudi.