AZulfi
Local Club Captain
- Joined
- Apr 5, 2011
- Runs
- 2,369
- Post of the Week
- 1
Happy 36th birthday (unofficial age that is)!!
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Lol i heard he shares his date of birth with justin bieber. Is tjis true?![]()
I am 100% sure.... 1 march 1980 is a fake birth date.....Afridi is from KP.....birth certification in KP is a joke
Wisden overview
Majestic timing and placement were Saeed Anwar's hallmarks. He was an opener capable of electrifying starts in all cricket through graceful strokeplay rather than brute force. He loved driving through the off side with minimal footwork. He annihilated any bowler offering width outside off stump although he too regularly guided the ball straight into the hands of fourth slip or gully. He first came to prominence as a one-day player but soon achieved equal success in Test cricket. Anwar's fielding was weak, he was injury prone, and his footwork became less assured as his career drew to a close. Opting to take a break from the game after the death of his daughter in August 2001, he was a lesser force when he came back, though he still managed a hundred against India in the 2003 World Cup. His batting prowess on the wane, Anwar finally announced his retirement just before Pakistan's home series against Bangladesh. He held the record for the highest ODI score till Sachin Tendulkar upstaged him, and on his day he was one of the most gracefully compelling players on the international stage.
Of Shahid Afridi it can safely be said that cricket never has and never will see another like him. To say he is an allrounder is to say Albert Einstein was a scientist; it tells a criminally bare story.
For a start, the slant of his all-round skills only became clear ten years into his career; he is a leg-spinning allrounder. Variety is his calling and as well as a traditional leg-break, he has two googlies, a conventional offie and a lethal faster one, though this is increasingly rare. All come with the threat of considerable, late drift. He fairly hustles through overs, which in limited-over formats is a weapon in itself and the package is dangerous.
But forever associated with him will be his madcap batting, the prospect of which is a crowd-puller the world over. He is a compulsive basher, literally unable to control his urges to slog every ball that comes his way, and not much of it is classical. Often spectacular results are at hand; he owns, for example, two of the fastest ODI hundreds, including the fastest one ever in his first innings ever at the age of 16. His career strike rates are nearly unmatched. But mostly, anywhere in the order, consistency has been missing.
Despite a healthy Test career, he gave up on the format in 2006, pre-empting men such as Andrew Flintoff, to maximise fully a limited-overs career. He came back, in inimitable fashion, for one Test only, as captain no less in 2010. A loss and two slogs meant he re-retired immediately after. Twenty20 is something he could've been made for and he is among the most lethal players of the format, having been player of the tournament for the inaugural edition of the World Twenty20 in 2007 and led Pakistan to the title two years later with matchwinning all-round hands in the semi and final.
Maturity has often threatened to gatecrash his career and leadership was a just reward, though it was taken away from him in 2011 after an immature spat; another retirement was announced but none of it will change much a truly unique career.
Osman Samiuddin
Happy B-day to Afridi, he turns 34 (17) today.
lets hope he does something with the bat on sunday.