‘Do you want to kill me?’: When Brian Lara left Shoaib Akhtar in shock

Shoaib Akhtar struck terror in the minds of batters with his lightning pace, bounce and deadly yorkers from the beginning of the new millennium till his retirement.

Such was his pace that even the most technically equipped batters played him with outmost caution. But there were also occassions when the likes of Sachin Tendulkar, Brian Lara and Ricky Ponting battered Akhtar to bits with their solid stroke play.

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The record for the fastest delivery belongs to Akhtar. He clocked over 100 miles an hour in a Test. Besides bowling, Akhtar’s intimidating stature and aggression have always delighted cricket fans.

During his career Akhtar himself had to suffer pains because bowling fast affected his knees. The same pain he gave it back to the batters. There were so many batters who were afraid of facing him even in helmets.

Recalling an incident, he said he once went up to say something to Lara but didn’t expect the reaction that he would get from Lara.

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“Coach Bob Woolmer always used to say to me ‘Always concentrate on channel bowling… focus on line and length’. So one day Brian Lara was batting. Now I hadn’t bowled to him in seven years. I told him, ‘Brian, it’s an honour to bowl to you for the first time in the last 8 years. Lara looked at me and said ‘Do you want to kill me?’ I said no. So, when I went inside the change room, Woolmer tells me, ‘His backlift is very high. Bowl a yorker’. I said, alright. I bowled a yorker at almost 97 miles an hour and Lara effortlessly flicked me for a four,” Akhtar told comedian Tanmay Bhatt on his YouTube channel.

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In the 2004 Champions Trophy semifinal between Pakistan and West Indies in England, Akhtar bowled a scorching bouncer to left-handed Lara which hit on the neck of the latter. The blow was so immense that the West Indies great fell on the pitch immediately. Lara was laying the ground in pain. Akhtar and the entire Pakistan team went on to check on him and thankfully he was back on his feet.