Owais Mughal
After winning the series against Sri Lanka 2-1, Pakistan cricket team seems to be getting its groove back.
And so is Shahid Afridi who was once again the star for Pakistan. While he was more brilliant with the ball, he did also reach a new batting milestone.
During the first match of current Pakistan versus Sri Lanka One Day International series in Abu Dhabi, UAE, Shahid Afridi completed his 5000 career runs. This was Shahid Afridi ‘s 239th match and 227th innings.
He thus became the 8th cricketer of Pakistan to complete 5000 or more runs in ODIs.
Here is the list of 10 most prolific career run getters for Pakistan in ODIs.
1. Inzamam-ul-Haq 11739 runs at 39.52 runs/inning
2. Saeed Anwar 8823 at 39.21
3. M Yousuf 7957 at 41.22
4. Javed Miandad 7381 at 41.7
5. Saleem Malik 7170 at 32.88
6. Ijaz Ahmed 6564 at 32.33
7. Rameez Raja 5841 at 32.09
8. Shahid Afridi 5072 at 23.37
9. Aamer Sohail 4780 at 31.86
10. Abdul Razzak 4465 at 29.96
Shahid Afridi now also holds the world Record strike rate in ODIs. Following is the list of only players in the world with greater than 100% strike rate. Qualification is atleast 20 innings. Amazingly Afridi has maintained this strike rate after 228 innings. His closest rival has played only 25 innings.
1. Shahid Afridi 228 innings, 5072 runs at a strike rate of 109.38 %
2. JM Davison (Canada) 25 innings, 693 runs at a strike rate of 108.45%
3. AM Blignaut (Zimbabwe) 40, 625, 106.65%
4. BL Cairns (NewZealand) 65, 987, 104.88%
5. DR Smith (WestIndies) 52, 766, 101.32%
6. AR Adams (New Zealand) 34, 419, 100.47%
Previous ATP posts on Shahid Afridi:
[quote comment=”48386″]Those who believe Pakistan should start planning for the next World Cup right have very little understanding of cricket. Dropping players just because 4 years from now, they might not be fit is the most ridiculous argument and any one who brings it up lacks common sense. The middle path is always the right path and should be the course in cricket too. Bring the youngster and groom them for the right reasons and not just for the next world cup.[/quote]
PCB is nothing but a microcosm of Pakistan. Save the nation first from the jaws of sharks guised as generals. Then we can build the civilian institutions including PCB.
Uffffff….. World Cup is the MOST important thing in any sport.
Teams plan for the world cups not just 4 but 6-8 years in advance. This is the time frame with which you plan to groom young players for the world cup.
Winning the 92 world cup was the biggest moment in Pakistan cricket. If we win 2011 cup, it will again be a HUGE thing.
So what’s wrong with planning for it now??????
If the likes of Salman Butt, Fawad Alam etc. are going to help us in World Cup 2011, and not the likes of Inzi, Younus and Yousuf, then i say include these youngsters in the team RIGHT NOW. Give them experience.
I would much rather win the next world cup, than a few Abu Dhabi / Afro-Asia type series in between.
Those who believe Pakistan should start planning for the next World Cup right have very little understanding of cricket. Dropping players just because 4 years from now, they might not be fit is the most ridiculous argument and any one who brings it up lacks common sense. The middle path is always the right path and should be the course in cricket too. Bring the youngster and groom them for the right reasons and not just for the next world cup.
Ok, first of all, its NOT quite fair to say that while Sri Lanka played a second string team, Pakistan had the advantage of a full force side.
1. We were playing without Shoaib Akhtar, Younus Khan and Inzi (who just retired), so just like SL, we had 3 top players missing
2. We had a new captain (doing the job for the first time at international level) and a new vice captain. (both our ex captain and vice captain were not in the team)
3. We did not even have a coach
Also i disagree with the posters who believe we did not use Abu Dahbi as an opportunity to experiment with younger players. Majority of our team WAS young and fairly inexperienced.
11 out of 16 players were 26 years or less. Thats a pretty young side, and all these players, if they maintain quality, can play the next world cup at their prime!!!
Fawad Alam 21
Salman Butt 22
Najaf Shah 22
Mohammad Asif 24
Umar Gul 24
Imran Nazir 25
Shoaib Malik 25
Kamran Akmal 25
Iftekhar Anjum 26
Mohammad Sami 26
Mohammad Hafeez 26
Abdur Rehman 27
Shahid Afridi 27
Abdul Razzaq 27
Yasir Hameed 29
Mohammad Yousuf 32
Yes we could have done a few more experiments. For example, Yousuf did not have to play all 3 games, while Fawad Alam and Najaf Shah should have played atleast 2. But overall we did experiment. Needless to say that it was much more important for us than it was for SL, to win the series, in order to win groove and morale back.
I think Shoaib Malik did a very good job as a captain. He deserved the victories. While on the field, I think Afridi did a tremendous job too, both with bat and ball. Well done both of them, and rest of the team!!!
Rest assured that the team Pakistan faced in the Abu Dhabi series is not the same Sri Lankan team that reached the World Cup finals. In addition to the players pointed out by Mera Pakistan, Sri Lanka also rested Kumar Sangakkara who is their vice captain, wicket keeper and top order batsman. This was a second string SL team.
In fact the way I see it this series has shown the difference between sides like SL and Australia and the other teams in the world. Sri Lanka understood that this was just a minor series so they rested their senior players and sent in their youngsters. This way the youngsters get some experience. So what if they lost the series. To win you must be prepared to loose a few matches. To succeed you must not be afraid to fail. Which is why the Pakistani move of sticking to the same set of aging WC losers is such a bad idea. This was an ideal opportunity to blood some youngsters. Shame that Pakistan did not do that. Great to see SL doing it.