Anil Kumble is currently fourth on the all-time list of wicket-takers in Test cricket, and is one of only four bowlers to take 600 or more wickets. He is behind only Muttiah Muralitharan, Shane Warne, and James Anderson.
He finished his Test career with 619 wickets from 132 matches at an average of 29.85. But if there is one day that defines his career, it is his spell in the second innings of the second Test match against Pakistan in February 1999 at the Feroz Shah Kotla Stadium in Delhi.
India were in the driving position. They scored 252, then bowled out Pakistan for 172, Kumble taking 4-75.
Sadagoppan Ramesh then scored 96 to help India make 339 in their second innings. Pakistan needed 420 to win the match.
It was time for Kumble to take centrestage.
Pakistan had started their run chase well, with Saeed Anwar and Shahid Afridi putting on 101 for the first wicket.
Then Kumble removed Afridi for 41. Next ball, he had Ijaz Ahmed leg before.
Four overs later, he struck twice again, removing Inzamam ul-Haq and Mohammad Yousuf, and soon accounted for Moin Khan and Anwar as well..
He then had to wait a while as Saleem Malik and captain Wasim Akram enjoyed a brief partnership, but the hiatus was only temporary. He was soon back in the groove, taking the wickets of Malik, Mushtaq Ahmed and Saqlain Mushtaq.
Only the Wasim stood between him and history, and he too finally succumbed caught for 37.
Kumble took all ten wickets in the innings, becoming in the process the first man to do so since Jim Laker in 1956. Laker was playing for England against Australia at Old Trafford.
Since Kumble, Ajaz Patel of New Zealand became the third to achieve the feat, playing for New Zealand against India at Mumbai in December 2021.
Kumble’s final figures for that innings were 26.3-9-10-74. It was a day he, or anybody who was there to witness it, will ever forget.