WATCH | When Proteas speedster Allan Donald hit UAE captain Sultan Zarwani on the head

The Proteas will face the UAE for the first time in a T20 International in New Delhi on Wednesday. 

The two nations have only met twice previously in the ODI arena with the Proteas winning both matches comfortably at the 2015 and 1996 World Cups. 

But the major flashpoint occurred in the Rawalpindi encounter in 1996. The Proteas had amassed 321 - courtesy of Gary Kirsten’s 188* - which settled the game as a contest. 

The UAE limped along in their run-chase which increased the Proteas’ frustrations in the field. 

This increased when the UAE captain Sultan Zarwani walked out to bat wearing only a floppy hat to face Proteas spearhead Allan Donald. 

It was regarded as the biggest insult with Donald arguably the fastest bowler in the world at the time. 

With his teammate Pat Symcox urging him on to teach Zarwani a lesson by sending down a bouncer, Donald let fly the perfect bumper that hit the UAE captain flush on the badge of his floppy.

The hat went flying and the impact was so hard that the ball travelled all the way to third man. 

Fortunately, Zarwani was not hurt too badly, just rubbing his head, and after being consoled by Kirsten continued batting before Brian McMillan dismissed him for a duck. 

“It was one of those incidents. He was hit on the head and it is not something that I want to see every day. However, as Sir Richard Hadlee (legendary ex-New Zealand star) once said, for a pacer a batsman is always an obstacle, and you have to act to remove him somehow,” Donald told Gulf News. 

Donald, who took 330 wickets in a stellar 10-year Test career for South Africa between 1992 and 2002, quickly added: “That is not one of the ways to do it. Frankly, I would have been happy if he had worn a helmet that day.”