The Hindu : Sport / Cricket : ‘I almost lost my mind’

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Thursday, Jul 26, 2007
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‘I almost lost my mind’

— PHOTO: AP

Monty Panesar.

London: Practitioner of perhaps the most spectacular celebration in cricket, England’s left-arm spinner Monty Panesar revealed he almost lost his mind after trapping Sachin Tendulkar in the Lord’s Test.

Tendulkar had scribbled “once in a blue moon” on the ball with which Panesar had removed the Indian for his maiden Test wicket in the Nagpur Test last year.

But Panesar was not ready to wait that long and trapped his childhood hero plumb in front before bursting into his trademark celebration. “It was as if I lost my mind. I honestly didn’t know what was going on. I just started running and it felt like I was flying somewhere.

“The only thing I can remember is hugging everyone. Afterwards, all I could think to myself was: ‘Did I really do that?’ I haven’t had the chance to see a replay of the celebration but my friends told me that I just went crazy,” Monty wrote in his column for Daily Mail.

‘A great player’

Despite getting Tendulkar out for a meagre 16, Panesar still remains in the Mumbaikar’s awe. “I was just savouring the moment and the reason I reacted like that was because he is such a great player.” — PTI

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