by Arunabha Sengupta
Zinc oxide applied like war paint, the lithe, athletic figure measuring a long, long run up.
What was fascinating was the distance behind the wicket where the keeper and slips took up their positions. We had never seen anything like it.
And then there was the run up. Long, rhythmic strides, eating up the distance to the crease, the leap, the roll of the arm, the release … and then a thud as the ball hit Dave Richardson’s gloves.
100000 people had assembled at The Eden for the return of South Africa to international cricket. Everyone gasped. No one really saw the ball. Everyone saw Ravi Shastri prod forward, his bat coming down aeons after the ball had passed. Some sitting square of the wicket saw the puff of dust. That was it.
They had never seen anything like this.
Many of them had watched Marshall bowl here in 1983. Most of them had seen Patterson stutter and run in during the 1987-88 season. But this was different. White lightning.
Shastri got a touch to the fifth ball and walked back. Manjrekar looked back to see the stumps cartwheeling. 3/2 in reply to 177.
It took Tendulkar’s genius and Amre’s magnificent debut to win it for India, but it was by an uncomfortable margin of 3 wickets. But Allan Donald made the world sit up and take notice of the return of South Africa. 5-29 off 8.4 overs.
And all the while he looked quite bemused, constantly looking back from fine leg, trying to fathom the degree of fanaticism and noise in the stands behind him. The South Africans too had never seen anything like this madness.
The previous season, South Africa had witnessed the final Rebel Test at Wanderers. Against Mike Gatting’s men. The young 24-year-old had destroyed the English batting with 4-30 and 4-29.
But the question remained. Would he play too many Tests? South Africa’s readmission still seemed far far away.
Thankfully, they were fast-tracked into international cricket. Age was on his side. Donald was just 25 when South Africa were re-admitted.
Hence he could play 72 Test matches.
When he returned in 1996-97, there was that afternoon at Eden, when he started coming in faster and faster. Not that he was picking a lot of wickets, but the pace was frightening. Not exaggerating at all. It was frightening.
There were voices in the stands literally asking him to ‘slow down’. And then there was one that rang out, a modern day Yabba-sort. “Bowl slower, I’ve come to watch cricket. I can’t see the balls.”
And then there was the moment when Tendulkar’s stumps went flying, a 91-minute-old innings of a Tendulkar of the late-1990s ending with a ball breaching his defence and sending the stump on a walk.
Few have bowled faster. Fewer have bowled better at that speed.
India were scheduled to embark on a return tour immediately after the series. Hence, that Yabba-voice added, “We need a shoulder or heel injury, or stress fracture. We can’t face this in Durban.”
India did face him at Durban. Donald 5-40, 4-14. India 100 and 66. .
With 330 wickets at 22.25 he ended as one of the greatest fast bowlers ever. But if he had started at 21 or so like most other fast bowlers, he might have had another 100 to 150 Test wickets.
Allan Donald was born on 20 Oct 1966.