Irfan Pathan reveals how he successfully got away after sledging Shoaib Akhtar

Irfan Pathan has revealed how he got away after taking the risk of sledging Shoaib Akhtar during the second Test match at Faisalabad in January 2006. Nonetheless, Irfan was rewarded for his risk as he and Mahendra Singh Dhoni could successfully negate Shoaib's spell as a result of which the Test match ended in a stalemate. 

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'I sledged Akhtar': Irfan Pathan

During an Instagram live session with Sports Tak, Irfan went on to say when he had walked out to bat Akhtar was bowling at a rapid pace of 150-160 kph as a result of which he went to MS Dhoni and asked him how the pitch was behaving to which Dhoni replied by saying that it is not doing much and asked him to just keep batting. 

Recalling the star pacer's spell, Pathan mentioned that he faced the first ball from Shoaib which was a bouncer but such was the pace that he could not even see the ball and somehow both batsmen tried to negate his spell. The veteran all-rounder then added that both he and Dhoni tried building their partnership and after some time, the 'Rawalpindi' Express' came for a new spell.
Furthermore, the former pacer also added that Akhtar was sledging due to which he had to go and tell Dhoni that he will sledge Akhtar while all the stumper needs to do is laugh at him to which he obliged. At the same time, the left-arm seamer also mentioned that while the Rawalpindi cricketer started playing mind games, the ball had also started to reverse which made batting more difficult.

Recollecting that incident, Pathan also said how his plan had almost backfired when he had asked Akhtar, 'Paaji, agla spell me utna hi jaan lagegi?’ to which a furious Shoaib Akhtar reacted by saying that ‘Bahut zyada baat kar rahe ho, tereko mai utha lunga idhar se'. Nevertheless, the plan worked out very well as both the batsmen were successfully able to get through Shoiab Akhtar's fiery spell and the contest ended in a draw.

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