It was a sound fast bowlers dream about.
The slightly tinny noise of Michael Vaughan’s off stump being knocked back signalled what should have been the highlight of Mohammad Sami’s day at Lord’s.
But from behind the Pakistan bowler came another sound.
With his arm already outstretched, umpire Peter Willey grunted “no ball”.
Sami covered his face in despair as Vaughan smiled a little sheepishly back at him.
But if the England captain won that particular battle, he will also have lodged the experience away in his mind.
Sami puts his all into his bowling
In Sami, Pakistan have a strike bowler who, at 22, has the cricket world at his feet.
It will work in Sami’s favour that Shoaib Akhtar will continue to grab the headlines whenever the pair play for Pakistan.
But after their respective experiences during the three-match series in England, that may be less often than people would have imagined.
Both offer extreme pace, with Sami consistently logging in between 90 and 95mph, but Shoaib, nick-named the Rawalpindi Express, is patently in urgent need of instructions from the fat controller.
He may be fast but he has was also hideously expensive during the second match of the series, going for 69 in 10 overs at The Oval.
And although he bowled a luckless final spell at Lord’s, which on another day could easily have bowled Pakistan to victory, he went wicketless in the match.
Having missed the opener at Old Trafford as part of a ban for ball-tampering, Shoaib’s star, once so high, is in danger of grounding.
The flick of the hair may be of Hollywood timing and the stubble is of George Michael proportions, but facts are facts.
In the same match he became the first bowler in history to be recorded at more than 100mph, he was hit for 63 runs in nine overs by England’s batsmen.
It was no coincidence his performance tailed off after he had broken cricket’s ultimate speed barrier.
Sami appeals for an lbw decision
Sami has not exactly been miserly in his short one-day international career, having conceded 4.7 runs per over in 31 matches, but he is reassuringly modest by comparison to his opening partner and clearly has the hunger for a fight.
Drilled for a straight four by Vikram Solanki at Lord’s, he responded with a pearler next ball, having Solanki caught behind off a ball that pitched and moved away.
Having come through the ranks of domestic cricket in Pakistan, Sami was soon raising eyebrows in the Test arena by claiming a five-wicket haul in his first match and a hat-trick in his third.
And his education will now continue apace as he becomes Kent’s second overseas player.
As for Shoaib, 25, he heads for Durham to lick his wounds and work on his hairdo.
For now - if only for now - the young upstart from Karachi has stolen his very considerable thunder.
