The greatest left arm fast bowler (best performances part 4)
http://www.senore.com/Cricket/Wasim-Akram-c96292 continued his form in the 2nd Test against Australia, at the Adelaide Oval. The left-armer blossomed with the bat in the first innings. He scored a gritty 52, lifting the Pakistan total to 257, which was looking like 200 before.
His batting performance was followed by a marathon spell of 43-overs, taking 5/100. Australia took a lead of 84 runs. Pakistan started dismally, losing 4 wickets for just 23 runs, and at 5/90. A defeat was on the cards, before Wasim joined his mentor Imran
Khan. His maiden Test century was scored under pressure. The pupil and the mentor formed a match saving partnership of 191 runs. Wasim scored a brilliant and attacking 123. The situation didn’t stop him scoring runs freely. This performance earned him the
man-of the-match award.
Pakistan’s tour of England in 1992 is one of the hallmarks of his career. The first Test at Lord’s encountered a thrilling finish. He, with his long time bowling partner, not only formed a bowling partnership, but they did there bit with the bat as well.
The duo took 7 wickets, 2/49 for Wasim and 5/91 for Waqar, restricting England to 255.
England lost their last 5 wickets for just 42 runs. Three of the Pakistan’s top order batsman scored half centuries to ensure a lead of 38 runs. England was stuttering in the 2nd innings. It was 7/174.
The champion left armer took the last three wickets without conceding a single, and England crumbled for 175 all-out. Pakistan chased down a stiff target of 138 runs rather submissively. The 3 of their top order batsman scored ducks. It was 5/62 when Wasim
joined Aamer Sohail, and 8/95 when his bowling partner Waqar joined him. The duo sealed a 2 wicket win for http://www.senore.com/Cricket/Pakistan-c755 to win the Test match at Lord’s.
Wasim despite a pressure situation continued to play his attacking game. An unbeaten innings of 45 proved to be a match winning one. The victory at Lord’s did set up the series nicely for Pakistan.
In the year of 1999 in Sharjah, Wasim bowled one of his best spells. The champion left armer went wicketless in league matches of the Sharjah cup tournament. The hunger and desperation was right on the top. Wasim, running in like an assassin ripped the heart
out of the Indian batting line-up.
In the very first over of the innings, the third ball came into the left-handed Ramesh and trapped him right in front of the stumps. The very next ball of the over pitched on the off-stump, appearing to go away from the technician, http://www.senore.com/Cricket/Rahul-c83321 Dravid, but then
came back in, to trap him lbw. http://www.senore.com/Cricket/India-c750 never recovered from the loss, despite Ganguly’s half century. The tall leftie came back later in the innings to clean Agarkar, to finish off the Indian innings, and taking match figures of 3/11 in 8 overs. Pakistan easily
chased down the target of 125 to lift the trophy.
Pakistan’s last Test series win against Australia came way back in 1994. They did beat Australia in the first Test at Karachi. The win at Karachi was followed by two drawn Test matches that ensured a series win. Wasim was one of the architects of the victory.
Pakistan after conceding an 81 runs lead in the first innings fought back nicely due to the great bowling performances from the 2 W’s. Both took 9 wickets between them.
http://www.senore.com/Cricket/Australia-c746 was going along nicely. They were 171/3 when the ball started to reverse swing. The champion left arm fast bowler reversed his way to take 5/63 in the 2nd innings and restricted Australia to 232 runs. Pakistan chased down a total of
314 runs with one wicket remaining.
Wasim Akram was a bit out of form after the 1999 World Cup. The Caribbean tour of 2000 started a bit similarly for him. The Test match saw the spell of a life-time from the champion. West Indies in chase on 269 started off well, and were looking to get a
significant lead. Wasim’s spell of 6/61 made sure that http://www.senore.com/Cricket/West-Indies-c760 could only get a lead of 4 runs. Pakistan set up a target of 216 runs. It wasn’t a match winning total, but Wasim 5/ 49 made it almost impossible. Pakistan was robbed by umpires 7 times. West
Indies with the help of umpires sealed a one wicket win. But it did not prevent Wasim from taking the man-of-the-match award.
Tags: