Bengaluru: Former India coach and captain of the test team Anil Kumble has expressed that his maiden Test century, which was his only ton in the longest format of the game, was special in many ways. 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.
