'I shouldn’t have done it': Shoaib Akhtar regrets deliberately aiming a beamer at MS Dhoni in 2006

Former Pakistan speedster Shoaib Akhtar, who is known for being one of the most ferocious of pacers in the world, in a recent online chat, recalled the time he had deliberately thrown a beamer at Mahendra Singh Dhoni. Akhtar was speaking with Aakash Chopra in a YouTube show called Aakash Vaani when he spoke about a Test match against India held at Faisalabad in 2006.

The former Indian skipper was in peak form and had already hit Akhtar three boundaries in a single over. The pressure was building up and the fast bowler tried to unsettle him by bowling the beamer. The ball went for a wide ultimately and the Pakistan cricketer has regretted the move ever since. “I think I had bowled an eight-nine over spell in Faisalabad. It was a quick spell and Dhoni scored a hundred. I purposely bowled a beamer to Dhoni and then apologised to him,” Akhtar said in Hindi. Saying that it was the first time he had thrown a beamer “purposely”, Akhtar said, “I shouldn’t have done it. I regretted it a lot”. Looking for reasons behind his action, the pacer recalled Dhoni “playing so well” and the wickets being slow. “However fast I was bowling, he kept on hitting. I think I got frustrated”. Overall, Dhoni has had a pretty good career graph while playing against Pakistan. In the said three match Test series, Dhoni had scored 179 runs at an average of 59.66, where he even hit his maiden Test century (148 runs). Incidentally, Dhoni’s maiden one day international ton also came against Pakistan. He had also scored 148 runs in that ODI.