Rose: Getting Tendulkar out was very emotional

It was one of the most memorable moments in West Indies Test cricket history when a 25-year-old young man from St Ann ripped through one of the most devastating batting line-ups in Test cricket.

Saturday, March 8, 1997 was a day to remember for Jamaican fast bowler Franklyn Rose, who introduced himself to the world with a mesmerising spell which brought him six wickets on debut for the West Indies against India in the first Test in Kingston.

In front of a jam-packed Sabina Park on the third morning of play, Rose removed VVS Laxman, Rahul Dravid, Saurav Ganguly, Mohammed Azharuddin, Abey Kuruvilla and the biggest one of all, Sachin Tendulkar, to finish the innings with six for 100 from 33 overs in the drawn Test match.

Now 48 years old, Rose reminisced about that unforgettable day in Kingston like it was yesterday.

"It is got to be the most memorable moment for me. I was very nervous on my debut bowling against one for the best batting line-ups in the world on a flat Sabina Park pitch. Just bowling to Tendulkar was a dream for me as this was a guy that my father and grandfather would listen to on the radio, and to see myself playing against him and getting his wicket was very emotional," said Rose.

Rose, who had played 94 first-class games, told STAR Sports that it was the first time that he wasn't opening the bowling at Sabina Park, having done so for Jamaica many times before. However, things worked out just the way he wanted on that fateful Saturday morning.

"I didn't sleep the night before, just thinking about how I was going to bowl to these Indian batsmen. I spoke to captain Courtney Walsh the night before at the hotel and told him that I wanted the ball first thing in the morning, and as fate would have it, the ball was in swinging from the commentary box end, and when I got Laxman, Dravid and then bowled Tendulkar for seven to see those stumps fly, my confidence just went up sky high," added Rose.

The combination of Rose and Brian Lara would then account for two more wickets before Rose bowled Abey Kuruvilla for a duck to claim his sixth wicket, which would go down as the third-best figures by a West Indian debutant behind Alfred Valentine and Darren Sammy.