Wasim Akram – Legend of Cricket
As a fast bowler, Wasim Akram stands among the best of all time and his punishing middle-order batting has been a feature of many Pakistani victories over the years.
In the finale of 1992 World Cup, Wasim turned up with an all-round performance and secured the coveted trophy for Pakistan by his ‘Player of the Match’ performance.
Wasim was immensely talented and easily the best left-arm pacer ever seen in the history of the game. From a short run-up, he can swing the ball both ways at a very high pace.
On his day, Wasim can do wonders with the bat, getting after the bowlers and destroying everything comes to him. There game has produced many greats all-rounder, such as http://www.senore.com/Cricket/Kapil-Dev-c70234 and Richard Hadley, but the cricket pundits put Wasim right at
the top of that group.
He made Test debut in 1985 against http://www.senore.com/Cricket/Pakistan-c755’s
tour to http://www.senore.com/Cricket/India-c750 in the following years.
He soon reached at the point, where other players from all over the world started copying him. The final clash of 1992 mega event at Melbourne was a huge trial for the young man.
Imran Khan and http://www.senore.com/Cricket/Javed-Miandad-c66580 laid a solid foundation by hitting superb half-centuries but it was his blistering 33-run-kncok that propped the side up to 249 runs – a decent score to defend.
When England batted, the occasion was perfect to produce his best and the great player was right on the money. Wasim got the dangerous Ian Botham out immediately and then came back hard in the middle overs, knocking over http://www.senore.com/Cricket/Christopher-John-Lewis-c50868 with two
fantastic deliveries.
He guided Pakistan to number of triumphs by showing such performance in the succeeding years. Wasim and http://www.senore.com/Cricket/Waqar-Younis-Maitla-c96193 are rated by some, as the finest fast bowling combination ever. The two bowlers redefined the art of bowling with the old ball.
In 1993, Wasim was given the responsibility to captain the side for the first time when Miandad was axed from the position. Since he had no prior experience of captaincy plus there was no help available for him from the senior players like Miandad and Ramiz
Raja, he failed to continue as captain for long period of time.
Wasim became skipper for the fourth time in 1998 and Pakistan enjoyed a great year under his command before the World Cup 1999, where he led Man in Green to the final clash.
Despite constant external pressure, Wasim continued producing great performances with both bat and ball. He holds the record of scoring most number of runs in an individual Test innings at the number-eight position – 257 not out against http://www.senore.com/Cricket/Zimbabwe-c3045 in 1996.
Wasim took 414 wickets in Tests and nabbed 502 in ODIs – the first bowler to cross 500-mark in 50-over version of the game.
His batting stats are exciting as well, as he made 2898 runs in 104 Tests and blazed 3717 runs in 356 one-dayers.
He is arguably the finest left-arm fast bowler of all time. He is a record-breaking batsman and was the captain of his country. Arrogant, brilliant and often controversial – http://www.senore.com/Cricket/Wasim-Akram-c96292 is certainly one of the legends of cricket.
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