BENGALURU: Former India captain and coach Anil Kumble has said his only Test hundred was special in ways more than one. Kumble, India's all-time highest wicket taker in Tests, got a hundred in a Test match against England at the Oval in 2007.
"The hundred certainly was very special. Because I tried it...tried, tried, tried from the first game, and I got it right in the 117th. So it was probably guesswork for me as well. Guessing what the bowler would do, and then I got all the guesswork right in the 117th Test match," Kumble told India off-spinner R. Ashwin on his Youtube chat show 'DRS with Ash'.
"More than me, if you look at the balcony, my teammates were extremely happy. I think Laxman just fell off celebrating my hundred," the legendary off-spinner recalled.
"I knew that I had the last man standing there. Sreesanth was the last man there. I had scored almost 30 runs with him. And I knew that they had taken the third or the fourth new ball, I don't remember. So I knew that I had to get the runs and not allow Sreesanth to have strike," he said.
"So I was trying to make sure that I go after KP and probably I stepped out too early. And KP just threw it really wide. And I had a swing. I knew I had taken the inside edge and before even Steve Bucknor thought that that was byes, I put my hand up, saying I have scored my hundred," Kumble added.