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Tuesday, March 20, 2007

Inzamam-ul-Haq retires from one-day internationals

Inzamam's fitter than he looks. You don't get to play 377 (soon to be 378) one-day internationals, score 10 hundreds and 83 fifties and play until you're 37 by being a fat bugger who doesn't like practicing or running between the wickets. Or do you?

Never forget that Inzy played a crucial role when Pakistan won the World Cup. You might think his one-day career's been a relative failure - in the last World Cup he made about three runs in the entire tournament and this one's been even worse, one way and another - but overall, he's got a lot to be proud of.

In the semi final of the 1992 World Cup, Inzy hit 60 off 37 balls batting at six (before being run out, obviously) as Pakistan successfully chased down New Zealand's 262 with an over to spare. That was a masterful innings under intense pressure. In the final he swatted 42 from 35 balls to bolster Pakistan's score - one which they successfully defended.

It's a shame he's going out on such a low, but it's hardly surprising that Inzy's retiring. At least it should give Pakistan a chance to find a new middle-order batsman to fill the huge hole he'll leave in the Test team. Hopefully his Test career will end in a more appropriate fashion.

Anyone who doesn't love Inzy is no friend of ours.

Here's our favourite Inzamam run-out story. Everybody's got one.

1 comment:

  1. Anonymous1:57 pm

    Aloo! Aloo!

    Seriously though, I think Inzy's ace.

    ReplyDelete