http://www.senore.com/Cricket/Zaheer-Abbas-c98435 the Asian Bradman Part 1
Zaheer Abbas is perhaps one of those few cricket players who have demonstrated that cricket is like an abstract painting, waiting for the artist to splatter some drops of paint and the artist himself is oblivious as to how the painting would emerge once
it is complete. But like all abstract paintings, there is some thought behind it, some inspiration some technique and a magic ingredient known as passion. Zaheer Abbas possessed all four.
He was a thoughtful batsman, an inspired cricketer a skilled craftsman and a passionate warrior. In a career that spanned 16 years, Zaheer Abbas painted a new painting in each innings that he played. His timing was the epitome of perfection, his batting
style conventional, however, his passion for the sport unrivalled, unmatched.
He was like a hand crafted swiss watch known for its precision of movement with a touch of elegance and endurance. His movement was fluent like the notes of Mozart, his innings refined with effortless splendour. He had the ability to move backward and forward
on the pitch with great ease and stroke the ball with his master brush, yet another stroke of artistic perfection. He was a maestro, scoring a very high proportion of runs in boundaries. He had supple wrists that flicked, nipped and majestically guided the
ball with his stokes of genius to the rightful place they deserved, at the boundaries. His artistic magnificence left cricket connoisseurs awestruck.
Words will never be enough to describe the batting prowess of this fine cricketer, a prince without a touch of arrogance. Zaheer’s most enduring quality was his ability to reproduce his masterpieces. He was not a one hit wonder, but rather a fighter a competitor
and a worthy challenger. His adversaries were threatened by the absolute brilliance of his batting on the field, and greatly respected him for his integrity and character even when he was off it.
Zaheer’s cricketing career boasts a century of centuries and if Vivian Richards was the Black Bradman, Zaheer was most certainly the Asian Bradman for his uncanny appetite for runs. In only his second Test match, Zaheer scored his highest Test score of 274,
which was further backed by more consistent performances against quality sides.
He went on to score three more double centuries for his country. During the latter years of his career he was one of the few batsmen in cricket history who wore spectacles while playing.
Only ten cricketers have scored more double centuries than cricket’s Picasso, Zaheer Abbas. The last of his four Test double hundreds came with an innings of 215 against http://www.senore.com/Cricket/India-c750 in 1983, when India was at its peak in the cricketing world, and it was the first
of three consecutive centuries in Tests, that also brought up his hundredth first class century. With that, Abbas became the 2nd batsman to score his hundredth first class century in a Test match.
Abbas was nicknamed the ‘Run machine’ by his contemporaries after his success in first class cricket. He had a long stint with the county club http://www.senore.com/Cricket/Gloucestershire-c785, after having joined the county in 1972 and playing with them for the next 13 years.
During his time with the club, he scored over a thousand runs in the majority of his 13 seasons and also scored over 2000 runs on two occasions for his club in 1976 and 1981. He averaged almost 50, scoring in excess of 16000 runs in the 206 first class games
he played for them that included 49 centuries and 76 half centuries.
At a time when there were no fielding restrictions and the captain could place all his fielders at the boundary, Abbas still managed to find his spots between the fielders. His high back lift doubled with his ability to play off the front or the back foot
made him one of the most graceful cricketers of his era.
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