Pakistan’s Saeed Ajmal still flummoxed why Sachin Tendulkar was not given out

Saeed Ajmal still cannot understand why Sachin Tendulkar was given not out during the India vs Pakistan 2011 cricket Word Cup semi-final.

More than five years may have passed but Pakistan’s top off-spinner Sajeed Ajmal still can’t “understand” how Sachin Tendulkar was adjudged not out when he was rapped on the pad by him during the 2011 World Cup semi- final.

Pakistan's Saeed Ajmal (L) played 35 Tests, 113 ODIs and 64 T20s. (AFP)

The 40-year-old Ajmal retired from all cricket after Faislabad lost to Lahore in the National T20 Championship yesterday.

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Batting great Tendulkar, who top-scored with 85 in that game against arch-rivals Pakistan at Mohali, at times struggled to pick Ajmal’s variations.

It was Ajmal who finally dismissed Tendulkar.

“I was totally convinced I had him in front of the stumps but how the umpires didn’t give him out I still can’t understand,” Ajmal said.

He admitted that bowling to Indian batsmen spurred him on.

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“It was always a test of skills and nerves when bowling to Tendulkar and company.”

After a successful but controversial career, Ajmal finished with 178 wickets in 35 Tests, the last of which was at Galle in Sri Lanka in 2014, where his bowling action was reported for a second time.