Abdullah719
T20I Captain
- Joined
- Apr 16, 2013
- Runs
- 44,825
"I just needed one more hour and I could have made 400 runs" : Inzamam-ul-Haq on his innings of 329
Inzamam-ul-Haq talking about his innings of 329 on his YouTube channel:
"329 was a very memorable innings for me, my biggest innings in all of cricket. I made it here in Lahore. My form wasn't so good before that.
"This Test match was important also because the next Test match in Karachi had a bomb blast incident. Few people know about that. I think that was a major thing in Pakistan's history. Thankfully, no player was injured or anything but it was a shocking day.
"The side that the bomb happened, my room was on that side and all the glass on the front side of the room blasted in toward the wall of the room. All the rooms had their glass broken. I ran downstairs, it was time to leave for the match early morning so most of the players had gone for breakfast, I was also going.
"I didn't understand what had happened. I ran outside and asked the police officer what happened on the floor. He told me there was a bomb blast outside.
"I went down and the NZ players were all in the pool and they were crying. It was a very difficult situation. NZ went back that day, but our team had to tolerate that too. For one week, I don't think anyone in our team could sleep properly.
"Back to the 329 - when I went to bat, I hadn't done too well in recent series. NZ had a good bowling attack. The special thing about that day was that it was extremely hot, 40, 45+C. Imran Nazir also made a hundred then and we were on top.
"As I built my innings, the poor NZ players were getting very tired. There, they don't have such hot weather. When I passed 300, their body language told me that you can score as much as you want, just let us go.
"We had a lot of time in the match but the last man came to bat with me. I asked him if he'll survive a couple of balls and said you do what you need to. When I got out, I had already made a lot of runs in that over. But the NZ body language was like you can score as much as you want.
"They were completely tired, I won't say that it was my class that I made 329. Thanks to Allah that I made that score. I could have broken Hanif Mohammad's record too but I never really thought of worrying about Pakistan player's records. Of course, world records were fine but I wasn't worried about getting Pakistani records and getting ahead of my compatriots. That was never an attraction for me.
"When I started playing, I wanted to break Javed bhai's record. Not because I had any problem with him but when we were playing, he was our hero. He would always top-score and make lots of hundreds and fifties so I wanted to achieve that. You should always aim big.
"Later I thought that rather than aim for Javed bhai's performances, I should aim for those who even achieved more than him, because you should always have big aims,
"Someone asked me if I was upset at not breaking Hanif Mohammad's record; I told him (and I still remember that), should I enjoy my 329 runs today or worry about 7-8 runs? So I think I prefer to enjoy the 329 runs.
"NZ were so tired when we declared. It was a good wicket for batting but Shoaib Akhtar got 6 wickets, the batsmen were completely unable to move as they were so tired.
"If I had batsmen alongside me and we were 5-6 down, I think I had the opportunity to make a world record. There was no time factor and the runs were also coming fast. Maybe I could have gone on to make more than 400 runs. I just needed one more hour to get to that mark.
"Sometimes you get these opportunities, sometimes you take them and sometimes miss them. This was the most memorable match of my career when I played the biggest innings of my life."
Inzamam-ul-Haq talking about his innings of 329 on his YouTube channel:
"329 was a very memorable innings for me, my biggest innings in all of cricket. I made it here in Lahore. My form wasn't so good before that.
"This Test match was important also because the next Test match in Karachi had a bomb blast incident. Few people know about that. I think that was a major thing in Pakistan's history. Thankfully, no player was injured or anything but it was a shocking day.
"The side that the bomb happened, my room was on that side and all the glass on the front side of the room blasted in toward the wall of the room. All the rooms had their glass broken. I ran downstairs, it was time to leave for the match early morning so most of the players had gone for breakfast, I was also going.
"I didn't understand what had happened. I ran outside and asked the police officer what happened on the floor. He told me there was a bomb blast outside.
"I went down and the NZ players were all in the pool and they were crying. It was a very difficult situation. NZ went back that day, but our team had to tolerate that too. For one week, I don't think anyone in our team could sleep properly.
"Back to the 329 - when I went to bat, I hadn't done too well in recent series. NZ had a good bowling attack. The special thing about that day was that it was extremely hot, 40, 45+C. Imran Nazir also made a hundred then and we were on top.
"As I built my innings, the poor NZ players were getting very tired. There, they don't have such hot weather. When I passed 300, their body language told me that you can score as much as you want, just let us go.
"We had a lot of time in the match but the last man came to bat with me. I asked him if he'll survive a couple of balls and said you do what you need to. When I got out, I had already made a lot of runs in that over. But the NZ body language was like you can score as much as you want.
"They were completely tired, I won't say that it was my class that I made 329. Thanks to Allah that I made that score. I could have broken Hanif Mohammad's record too but I never really thought of worrying about Pakistan player's records. Of course, world records were fine but I wasn't worried about getting Pakistani records and getting ahead of my compatriots. That was never an attraction for me.
"When I started playing, I wanted to break Javed bhai's record. Not because I had any problem with him but when we were playing, he was our hero. He would always top-score and make lots of hundreds and fifties so I wanted to achieve that. You should always aim big.
"Later I thought that rather than aim for Javed bhai's performances, I should aim for those who even achieved more than him, because you should always have big aims,
"Someone asked me if I was upset at not breaking Hanif Mohammad's record; I told him (and I still remember that), should I enjoy my 329 runs today or worry about 7-8 runs? So I think I prefer to enjoy the 329 runs.
"NZ were so tired when we declared. It was a good wicket for batting but Shoaib Akhtar got 6 wickets, the batsmen were completely unable to move as they were so tired.
"If I had batsmen alongside me and we were 5-6 down, I think I had the opportunity to make a world record. There was no time factor and the runs were also coming fast. Maybe I could have gone on to make more than 400 runs. I just needed one more hour to get to that mark.
"Sometimes you get these opportunities, sometimes you take them and sometimes miss them. This was the most memorable match of my career when I played the biggest innings of my life."
