Nasser Hussain Reveals Stumping Strategy Against Sachin Tendulkar

Jun 21, 2020 at 5:46 PM

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Nasser Hussain Reveals Stumping Strategy Against Sachin Tendulkar

Sachin Tendulkar played 200 Test matches but he was only dismissed once via stumping. England former captain Nasser Hussain had orchestrated the plan with his spinner Ashley Giles in the third Test match at Bangalore in 2001. India was behind the eighth-ball at 121-4 to England’s reply of 336 and Sachin Tendulkar and Virender Sehwag were trying to get India back in the contest.

Both of the right-handers were able to add 52 runs and Sachin was closing on another hundred as he was batting on 90. As India was playing at home, they had the crowd support as well. However, Nasser Hussain thought he had to keep Tendulkar quiet to take away the crowd advantage.

Sachin Tendulkar, Nasser Hussain
Sachin Tendulkar. Credits: Getty

Nasser Hussain was successful in his plan

Subsequently, Hussain told Giles to bowl in the rough area outside the leg-stump. The left-arm kept bowling outside the leg-stump and as a result it left Tendulkar frustrated as he was not able to score freely.

Ergo, the right-hander decided to prance down the wicket but missed the ball. The Master Blaster was then stumped by England’s wicket-keeper Jamie Foster and it was the first time that he was stumped in 143 Test innings at that time.

“If Sehwag and Tendulkar are smashing you everywhere and the crowd going ballistic, ‘Sachin, Sachin!’ echoing around the ground, I would look into my bowlers’ eyes and they would be a little bit gone. So I knew the key was to silence the crowd, take the crowd out of the equation. And the only way to do that was to stop Sachin scoring,” Hussain said on the Sony Ten Pit Stop.

“That pitch in Bangalore as well, there was a bit of rough there, but nothing on the main pitch, it was an absolute belter,” Hussain added. “If our bowlers had just bowled on the normal bit of the pitch, it would have done nothing. So I got Ashley [Giles], who was bowling a tight line and not just chucking it wide down leg stump. Ashley got close to the stumps and bowled quite a tight line and try to hit that rough.”

In fact, England and Nasser Hussain were severely criticised as it was said by the cricket pundits that the English skipper asked his bowler to bowl a negative line. However, the key for Hussain was to keep Tendulkar in check and not let him score freely. Nasser Hussain added that he was able to win the competition as it was not easy to dismiss the legendary batsman once he was settled.

5 Indian Origin Cricketers, Nasser Hussain
Nasser Hussain. Getty

“Sachin being Sachin, went, ‘Hold on, this is quite a cunning plan, I better just kick it away for a while.’ And obviously then the crowd went quiet and I think someone was there from England who said this is an absolute disgrace, England are using negative tactics. But it was just to silence the crowd. And it was the only time that Sachin got stumped. In the end, he had enough and ran down the pitch and got stumped by James Foster,” Hussain said.

“And people have given that to me as a win. Sachin got 90 (laughs), how is getting Sachin Tendulkar out for 90 a win? Maybe India only got something like 300 (sic 238) in the innings on a flat pitch at Bangalore and that was my win.”

India scored 238 runs and the match ended in a draw. The hosts went on to win the three-match series 1-0 and England was able to draw the two Test matches after losing the first one.

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