Kumble spins India to victory
Kumble wrecked Pak with 7-63 to script India's 195-run win in 2nd Test. Score | Replay | Player of day | King of Kolkata
In the quirky world of leg-spinners, Anil Kumble defies the norm. Not for him the Hollywood flashiness of Shane Warne or the bowling action idiosyncrasies of Abdul Qadir. Normal and self-effacing to the point of being boring, he isn't a character in the way some of his peers and predecessors are.
Kumble doesn't tease, torment or tantalise like they do. Or did. With the determination of a beaver, he ploughs through the batting quietly, determinedly. Yet somewhere down the line, K Anil, a mechanical engineer became India's most successful bowler, one with over 200 wickets from Tests India's won.
Typically, even after his seventh 10-wicket match haul and his best at the Eden Gardens, everything about the man is understated and subdued. He merely raised a wicket to acknowledge the cheers while leading the team in. "The draw in Mohali hurt and it was important to play a part in this win. There was a little bit of help from the wicket but it was slow," he said, after a haul of seven for 63.
If Pakistan harboured hopes of a miracle overnight, Kumble quashed them with a wicket off the first ball of the final day. Younis Khan lost his footing and was stumped smartly by Dinesh Kaarthick after trying to put bat to one going down leg-side. "It wasn't planned. I was aiming for a middle-leg line and it drifted down leg. The stumping by Kaarthick was brilliant though," said Kumble.
When Inzamam-ul Haq played on in the last ball of the 29th over and Taufeeq Umar edged an angular delight that swung late from Lakshmipathy Balaji in the first ball of the 30th, hopes of a first-ever win against Pakistan here became real.
It came 23 minutes into the final session when Harbhajan Singh's doosra bowled Danish Kaneria. A 195-run victory where Man-of-the-Match Rahul Dravid and man of the day Kumble played the main part takes Team India to Bangalore, home to the second-Test heroes and where Kumble has a road named after him.
