MAHARASHTRA :

Siddiqui opened batting and bowling in his only Test, and took a spectacular catch. That was it.

Iqbal Siddiqui, born December 26, 1974, was a Maharashtra stalwart through the 1990s. Abhishek Mukherjee looks at a man whose solitary Test resulted in multiple records for him.

The ‘One-Test Wonder’ tag does not sound something to be very proud of. Iqbal Rashid Siddiqui, however, had a remarkable one-off outing. It was not a remarkable performance, but he created multiple records in the process. But all in due course of time.

Siddiqui was reminiscent of Kapil Dev in more ways than one. He was stout, had an imposing frame, could generate deceptive pace, could swing the ball in air and gain significant movement off the pitch, and had that rare ability to run through a side on flat tracks — an attribute Indian pacers are not known for.

His 90 First-Class matches, mostly for Maharashtra, earned him 315 wickets at 30.08 — a number that reflects his inconsistency more than anything else. A decent batsman, he also scored 1,343 runs and had scored a hundred. He was also an excellent outfielder.

Maharashtra days

Born in Aurangabad, Siddiqui made his way quickly through the Under-16s and Under-19s. He made his First-Class debut in 1992-93, and stormed through Tamil Nadu at Bhusawal in the second innings with 6 for 59 and 4 for 71 in his second match.

He found a berth in the India Under-19s side for their 1994 tour of England. He had an excellent outing in the first Youth Test at Taunton against England Under-19s, taking five for 75 and four for 88; his tally included wickets of Marcus Trescothick, Michael Vaughan, and Anthony McGrath. Siddiqui headed the Indian bowling charts on the tour with 18 wickets at 24.

However, inconsistency caught up with him, and his career seemed to be fading away by 1995-96 (he even shifted to Hyderabad), though he found a place in the Irani Cup squad. Then came the match at Pune in 1997-98, where he routed Baroda with 7 for 49 and 5 for 30. The match figures of 12 for 79 remained his career-best.

Sent in as night-watchman against Orissa at Pune next season, Siddiqui slammed 116 from 292 balls. He ran through Saurashtra the next season with a career-best 8 for 72 at Pune (he took 2 more in the next innings). Consistent performances in the domestic circuit earned him a call-up for India A in their match against the touring Englishmen at Jaipur.

Siddiqui removed Mark Butcher after Sunil Joshi declared the innings closed at 233 for 9. But his real impact came in his second spell, when he removed Vaughan, Mark Ramprakash, and Andrew Flintoff in the space of 12 balls. He finished with 4 for 53, and gave the hosts a 63-run lead. Craig White bowled out India A for 109. This time Siddiqui removed Trescothick, but the tourists reached home with 3 wickets in hand. The selectors liked what they saw: Siddiqui made his debut in the first Test of the series at Mohali.

One Test, many records

To be fair, the selectors were harsh on the Indian bowlers after a dismal tour of South Africa. They brought in two debutant opening bowlers (Tinu Yohannan would partner Siddiqui), while in Sanjay Bangar  they drafted in an all-rounder. England also had two new men in James Foster and Richard Dawson.

England got off to a good start and reached 172 for 2 when Siddiqui claimed his only international wicket: Graham Thorpe edged one to VVS Laxman at third slip. Harbhajan Singh then bowled a fantastic spell, and the English were bowled out for 238. Deep Dasgupta, opening due to Virender Sehwag’s ban, scored a hundred; Rahul Dravid and Sachin Tendulkar both scored eighties; and India secured a 231-run lead.

Siddiqui, having taken 1 for 32 in the first innings, got only 8 wicketless overs in the second as Anil Kumble routed England for 235. However, he stunned Mohali by taking an exceptional tumbling catch of Trescothick at deep fine-leg off Yohannan. With only 5 to chase, Sourav Ganguly sent Siddiqui to open with Dasgupta; Siddiqui hit a boundary off the first ball from Matthew Hoggard and took a single from the second, and that was that.

In the process Siddiqui became the 12th player (and second Indian, after Manoj Prabhakar) to open batting and bowling on debut. He also remains the only cricketer to do the same in his only Test, and the second person to play the winning shot in his only Test after Jeff Moss.

[Note: Pat Cummins has also played the winning shot it in the only Test he has played so far, but he may play again.]

Later days

Siddiqui never played another Test. He played domestic cricket till 2004-05 before calling it quits. His last season saw him score 59 and take 5 for 68 against Assam at Aurangabad. He also played for Sevenoaks Vine in Kent Cricket League Premier Division in 2006, finishing with most wickets for the club (20 at 28.75).

(Abhishek Mukherjee is the Chief Editor and Cricket Historian at CricketCountry. He blogs here and can be followed on Twitter here)

source: http://www.cricketcountry.com / Cricket Country / Home> Features> Moments In History / by Abhishek Mukherjee / December 26th, 2016