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| An emotional Inzamam-ul Haq leaves Sabina Park in Kingston on Wednesday after his last ODI appearance. (AP) |
Kingston: An emotional Inzamam-ul-Haq dedicated his last match as captain and as a one-day player to coach Bob Woolmer, who died suddenly at the weekend, following Pakistan’s World Cup win over Zimbabwe.
Pakistan, already eliminated from the competition, romped to a 93-run victory over Zimbabwe on Wednesday just three days after Woolmer’s death rocked the competition.
“First of all, thanks to Bob, we dedicate this to Bob because he was a wonderful person, an elder for us and he’s not in this world now,” Inzamam said, choking back tears, said after the match.
“Every Pakistani, every cricket lover, every man is sad about him.”
“This game was difficult because we had dedicated it to Bob and we said before the match ‘we are down but we will get up and give out 100 per cent effort for Bob’. The last three or four days have been very difficult for all the players and we were under a lot of stress but we came out and we did it for Bob.”
Zimbabwe were also knocked out of the tournament, leaving hosts the West Indies and Ireland to progress to the Super Eights from Group D.
Emotions in the Pakistan camp have been running high ever since Woolmer was found unconscious in his hotel room on Sunday. He was pronounced dead in hospital later that day, less than 24 hours after his team had been knocked out of the tournament following a shock defeat at the hands of debutants Ireland.
The team gave Inzamam a guard of honour after his innings of 37 and he had to wipe away tears from his face as he walked through the players’ wall of appreciation.
“Definitely it’s an emotional time for me because I love this game and when you love something it’s not easy to leave it,” said Inzamam.
“I was emotional anyway but with Bob not being here made me extra emotional.”
“This is a very difficult decision that I’ve taken because I’ve played for the last 17 years and to play for Pakistan is a great honour.
“But I’ve enjoyed my cricket and it’s been a great passion for me,” he said.
“I will miss everything, the grounds, the dressing rooms, this game and everything around it,” he said. “I’m also very sad that’s why I’m emotional and, definitely when you’re playing for 16 or 17 years and when you leave, you will be a bit emotional.”
Inzamam said his one regret was that he couldn’t end on a high note.
“The nation has been behind me for 16 or 17 years and in the end I was unable to give a good response in this World Cup.”
Pakistan-Zimbabwe HIGHLIGHTS
Imran Nazir’s 160 was by far the highest score by a Pakistan batsman in the World Cup (the previous best being the 119 not out by Rameez Raja against New Zealand in Christchurch in 1992) and it was also the eighth-highest score by any batsman in the World Cup.
Incidentally, he becomes the only second Pakistani to make a 150-plus score in ODIs after the record 194 by Saeed Anwar.
Interestingly, Imran Nazir’s only other ODI hundred also came against Zimbabwe and that too on the Caribbean soil. He has made an unbeaten 105 in Grenada on April 15, 2000.
Nazir’s 95-ball hundred was the second fastest by a Pakistan batsman in the World Cup, after the 93-ball century by Salim Malik against Sri Lanka in Faisalabad in 1987.
Nazir’s eight sixes equal Ricky Ponting’s record for the most number of sixes in a World Cup innings. Ponting had achieved the feat against India in the 2003 World Cup final in Johannesburg.
Shahid Afridi became the sixth Pakistan bowler to take 200 wickets in ODIs. With nearly 5000 ODI runs (4998), Afridi can soon join Sannth Jayasuriya and South African Jacques Kallis to become the only third allrounder to do the double of 5000 runs and 200 wickets in ODIs.
Pakistan (349) became the first team in the WC to be dismissed (all-out) after scoring 300-plus runs.
Pakistani’s 349 was their highest in the WC. The previous two instances they achieved a 300-plus score in a WC was in 60-overs match.
COMPILED BY MOHANDAS MENON
