BCCI recalls Venkatesh Prasad's famous 1996 incident on his birthday

Former Indian cricketer Venkatesh Prasad is celebrating his 49th birthday on Sunday as the cricketing fraternity is busy wishing him. He is regarded as one of the best fast bowlers India has ever produced which was the reason he was also the bowling coach of the national team a few years ago. However, BCCI has recalled one of his famous dismissals and has come up with a perfect birthday wish for Prasad.

The birthday boy represented his country in 161 One-Day Internationals and 33 Test matches during his career and scalped close to 300 wickets. He was the new ball partner of Javagal Srinath and the duo enjoyed dominating the opposition very much. During the late 1990s, they played an important role in winning many matches for India.

1996 World Cup encounter against Pakistan

All Indian fans gush over the fact that Team India has never lost to their arch-rivals Pakistan in World Cup. But whenever both the teams face-off, a high-voltage drama is expected on the field. The same happened during the 1996 encounter when India and Pakistan were pitted to play the quarter-final at the Chinnaswamy Stadium in Bangalore.

The hosts had posted a huge total of 287 runs while batting first on the back of a sensational 93-run knock from Navjyot Singh Sidhu. In reply, the Men in Green were penalised due to their poor over-rate and were asked to gun down the target in 49 overs.

They got off to a superb start due to their openers Aamir Sohail and Saeed Anwar. The former was in blazing form then and was smashing the ball to all the parts of the Stadium. However, during the 15th over of the innings, he slapped Venkatesh Prasad through the covers by coming down the track and sledged him unnecessarily. The batsman warned Prasad and showed him the way he hit the ball.

Prasad redeems himself

Prasad, however, redeemed himself and took the revenge off the very next delivery as he castled Sohail. It was a brilliant delivery from him and the off-stumps of the batsman was uprooted. Not surprisingly, Prasad gave a fitting send-off to him and showed him where the dressing room. India also went on to win the game easily but this incident has remained etched in heart of the fans forever.

BCCI recalled the famous incident while wishing Prasad and posted the video of the same. They captioned the video with a message which read, “This moment is etched forever in every cricket fan’s minds. Perfect time to take everyone in a rewind!!! Happy Birthday, Venkatesh Prasad!”

Here’s the video:

This moment is etched forever in every cricket fan's minds. Perfect time to take everyone in a rewind!!! Happy Birthday Venkatesh Prasad! pic.twitter.com/uXemQmYjkq

— BCCI (@BCCI) August 5, 2018

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