That knock of 274 set the tone for Zaheer's entire career who was the ultimate master in compiling marathon innings.Zaheer Abbas gave the game of cricket its soul or ethereal beauty. He ressurected cricket’s golden age like no one else. His strokes were a manifestation of the divine, executed with timing of surreal proportions and magical touch.In my view for sheer style and elegance no batsman ever surpassed Zaheer Abbas.,who held a bat like a wand. No batsman as gloriously drove a cricket ball on other side of extra cover or looked more like a painter making curves on board. It is hard to find an adjective to do full justice to the sheer poetry in Zaheer's batting whose strokes resembled the touches of a painters brush. His mere deft touches would send the best of balls scuttling to the boundary. No batsman possessed the God gifted artistry of a cricketer more. Few batsmen ever took inventiveness to such mystical regions. Even when desecrating a bowling attack to pieces his strokes never lost the elements of composure or technique, like a boxer, poet and surgeon rolled into one. No batsman touched the core of your soul more than Zaheer who conjured up visions of reflection of moonlight in water.
Technically he was master, with shades of unorthodoxy because of his great inventive capability. Few batsman were better positioned when driving as Zaheer,who exhibited a flow that at times looked surreal. At his best he could improvise like a magician. He was an absolute master against fast-medium and spin bowling. Zaheer bewildered the purists with his very high back lift, with his bat coming down at the very last moment, to send ball crashing to the fence which looked inevitably like piercing the gate.
. His monumental 274 was amongst cricket's classics. taking aestheticism to regions of the sublime. For nine hours, ten minutes spectators were virtually put into a trance witnessing the glorious strokes all around the wicket, be it drives cut shots, pull or hook shots. Arguably No Asian cricketer ever took grace to such divine proportions, with the sheer flow in his strokes .The bowling attack was reduced to mere submission, but the ball simply caressed in the manner of a mother putting a ball to sleep. No innings before posed such a threat to the eclipsing of Gary Sobers' record test score of 365.One literally got vibrations of famous monument being constructed that day or a musical symphony being performed, with Zaheer blending the skill of a surgeon with the creativity of a poet. Sadly it failed to win Pakistan a test, in which they were overwhelmingly superior. His glorious drives executed through cover that day flash in my mind like a Ghazal.
Like all great players, his method was most uncomplicated with most rhythmic synchronization of body movements in the manner of a ballad dancer. It was based first on correct footwork, positioning himself perfectly to the length and line of each delivery. His backswing opposed the purists with its unorthodoxy, but his bat traversed the most vertical path, pleasing the most accurate geometrician..His power was obtained from his semi-circular high backlift, effervescent timing and subtle twist of the blade of the bat at the moment of impact. It is the blending of his wristiness, with a free follow-through that made his batting blossom like a lotus. In the manner of a ballad dancer he could move backwards and forwards in the execution of a single stroke. When watching him, I was constantly reminded of a Ghazal sung by Jasjit.
