“Shoaib Akhtar was sharp enough to keep the batsmen honest but did most of his damage in Lahore with a slower ball that must be the best of its kind since Franklyn Stephenson was making mugs of a lot of us back in the 1980s. When a delivery from a 90mph fast bowler leaves a batsman's radar screen it is worrying to say the least; you've lost sight of a red missile that can do you serious harm. And when it reappears not as a beamer but as a perfectly directed 70mph yorker, or even slower and loopier in Stephenson's case, it's usually too late to do anything about it. Akhtar let a couple slip above waist height, but all his slower balls were remarkably straight and he didn't overdo them. On such a flat pitch, a surprise delivery is invaluable.” This is how Mike Gatting described Akhtar's spell against England in the final test of the three-match series against Pakistan in 2005/06 in his column for The Observer. With its great success, it was a wonder that Akhtar did not use the 'loopy' variety after the series.