Here I will get into some memorable games in the more modern era of cricket. Some great cricket has come out of series which no one expected our team to be competitive in.
“Pakistan won the World Cup for the first time, beating England (twice previous finalists, never winners) by 22 runs on a memorably dramatic autumn night in Melbourne, before an Australian limited-overs record crowd of 87,182 who paid $A2 million (£880,000). Almost half of them sat in the newly completed Great Southern Stand, which cost $A140 million and is the largest construction ever conceived for Australian sport. It was further claimed that the global television audience exceeded one billion, in 29 countries. In Pakistan, where it was still early evening, jubilation verging on the hysterical splashed over into the streets, and upon their return the players were placed on the highest pedestals of heroism.”(Almanack) . Our team came out on top first time ever as World Cup champions. All thanks to our cricket captain Imran Khan playing through injuries and his leadership skills. It was also the beginning of a career for an unknown player at the time named Inzamam-ul-Haq (Pakistan’s current captain).“Pakistan somehow lifted themselves in the 1992 tournament after having won only one of their first five matches. Handicapped by the absence through injury of their outstanding fast bowler, Waqar Younis, they were spurred on by their rarefied captain, Imran Khan.”(Almanack). This Pakistan’s team resiliency will never be forgotten.
A series which looked so lop sided at first turned out to be a battle to the end. Pakistan downing West Indies in all three matches in their latest ODI series. However, the true form of cricket the test matches really displayed what each team had to offer. With the first match being a romping for West Indies and the second being a thriller only players on both teams can explain the feeling of. The test matches looked heavily in favour of Pakistan winning since they wiped out West Indies in the ODI’s, but WI batter Brian Lara had other plans of his own. Batting a strong 130 runs in his first innings sent Pakistan into a big hole. Afridi’s blistering second innings of 122 from 95 balls wasn’t enough. Pakistan lost by 276 runs. The second match was like a see-saw with Pakistan coming out with an impressive total of 374 runs and West Indies countering with 404 and then Pakistan’s 309. Then came the last innings with West Indies coming on to bat with an easy target of 280 runs to win the match and test series. This is where Danish Kaneria and Shabbir Ahmed unleashed their bowling prowess and crushed the batting order 5 wickets for 46 runs and 4 wickets for 55 runs respectively. This gave a total score of 143 for West Indies and steam-rolled for a loss.