Tuesday, October 30, 2007

Inzi - Our Best Batsman

The Pakistan - S.Africa series has come to an end in a rather disappointing fashion for the home side. I believe most people were expecting a better outing and a result in Pakistan's favor in the ODI series and it appeared that way till 30 minutes or so before the match ended. Oh well, I believe the banging my head against the wall and pounding my fists on the floor has been my source of lamenting and allowing myself the much needed outburst and reading Q's post has definitely covered it so thoroughly that I am not going to dwell on it more and move on.....

Despite the poor performance and the loss in both forms of the game, this series will be remembered in positive light in years to come because it included the farewell test of Pakistan's greatest batsman and one of modern cricket's greatest batsman, Inzamam-ul-Haq.

Inzi burst into the spotlight and was an instant hero after the '92 WC semifinal cameo! And really never looked back or disappointed since then. He has played numerous match winning innnings for Pakistan, probably has one of the best ratios of innings to win a match ever, his batting average in both forms of the game is outstanding and his captaincy record is one of the best for any of Pakistan's captains.

However, Inzi brought more to the game. So much more! He brought intangibles. He would always face the opposition's best bowler, in recent years I remember it was always Inzi who would face up to Murali and protect his teammates. Or who could forget the test match in India when Pakistan had lost early wickets and Inzi came in and hit Balaji for emphatic boundaries.

The cricketing world will also miss Inzi, the person. In numerous countries and by numerous people he was called an excellent ambassador of his country, a title not given to too many Pakistanis. His dry wit humor was just too classic and outright funny!

Words cannot describe the impact and the service Inzi has provided Pakistan cricket and cricket in general. Inzi will be missed and really it was so great to see this batsman get a farewell test match and bow out of the game with the tribute that he merits (albeit that he still has so much cricket left in him and should still be playing!), especially when other greats like Akram, Waqar, Anwar did not get a farewell test.

Make your pitch on this post...



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8 Pitched:

  1. Viswanathan said...
      This comment has been removed by the author.
  2. Viswanathan said...
     

    Other qualities aside, I remember Inzi for his slow walk back to the pavilion.

    You can almost sense his dissappointment in letting down his country.

  3. Q said...
     

    Not only that Ottayan, but also the fact that Inzi never liked walking off the ground. He priced his wicket very highly and thats what made him into a successful batsman.

    Other things abt Inzi that I'll miss are his expressionless faces on the field and while batting, the simple look to his batting, him running into the crowd with a bat, his occasional show of emotion such as the fist punching the air after beating Bangladesh, and a whole lot more man.

    The man has achieved. All my salutes.

  4. Viswanathan said...
     

    I heard this in an interview.

    It seems most times Inzi walked out to bat with any bat he can lay his hands on.

  5. Q said...
     

    For the best part of his career Inzi batted with a "CA" which were custom made for him - customized weight, length of handle etc. Plus, as with all batsmen, he probably carried a few, say around 3-4 bats with him. So picking any out of the lot I guess makes sense - i doubt that with his laid back nature he would make an effort to figure out which one out of the 4 was best. Plus I'm sure all 4 were just as good.

    But I think all batsmen have their favorites and I read somewhere that after scoring the 329, Inzi used the same bat for the remaining test matches.

    "CA" has come out with a number of bats based on Inzi's career. Thay have a '329', then they have the 8000, 9000, and 10000 series which were launched coinciding with when Inzi got those runs in his ODI career.

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