LAHORE: Shoaib Akhtar put in what is often remembered as the greatest performance of his career in Pakistan's ODI against South Africa in the first round of the Coca Cola Cup in 2000. Pakistan were all out for just 158 and South Africa seemed to be cruising towards victory at 74/1 in the 17th over.
Then came an extraordinary batting collapse triggered by Shoaib which saw South Africa falling to 101 all out. Herschelle Gibbs was unbeaten on 59 and recently acknowledged Shoaib's efforts in the match.
"One @shoaib100mph spell did the damage!" tweeted the former Proteas batsman while responding to a stat on the match put up by CrickTracker. Shoaib recorded figures of 3/9 in his mercurial 4.5 over spell.
The Pakistani pace legend responded to Gibbs on the social media platform saying, "Do you remember how hot it was @hershybru? It wasn't even a spell, it was one over. Lol In such weather conditions, I was always in a hurry."
Gibbs then replied: "you brought the heat brotherman! All you chirped was "cmon gibbsy hit me in front of square " but I ran out of partners which didn't help"
Shoaib then tweeted: "Good times man! I hope is all is well in these crazy times we are living in now."
Shoaib dismissed Mark Boucher, who was giving Gibbs able company and then followed that up by sending Dale Benkenstein and Lance Klusener back to the pavilion. All three wickets came in the 17th over.