mr_mister
Cricket Web: All-Time Legend
When I was younger this guy to me was just a total scrub. I knew him as clearly the biggest failure of the 3 modern Pakistani all-rounders - him, Afridi and Razzaq. All 3 all-rounders were a pretty critical component of the Pakistan team in 1999/2000 (when I watched a lot of Pakistan cricket due to the WC and the subsequent Australian tour) but a decade later Afridi and Razzaq had forged very memorable careers(at least in ODIs) while Mahmood had been left behind. I started watching cricket in the summer of '98/99 btw.
Anyway when I got older I was pretty surprised to find that the start of Mahmood's test career was a higher peak than Razzaq and Afridi reached, comfortably in fact.
128* and 50* in his test debut against SA at home in late '97, then of course 4 months later on his first test tour, to SA, in early '98 he racked up two more tons in the first two tests of that series(136 and 132). He never passed 50 again or outside these 3 matches/4 innings at test level but the details of these 4 innings is pretty crazy.
Allan Donald and Shaun Pollock featured in all 3 of these matches. The other bowlers were a variety of other guys, including Kallis, Klusener, De Villiers, McMillan, Symcox, Cronje and Schultz. For those in the know, there's only really 1-2 weak points in this list of names. It's a who-who of the amazing bowlers SA had to offer in the '90s. One attack of Donald/Pollock/De Villiers/Klusener looks especially vicious.
And then we look at the circumstances of these knocks. Coming it at 6/206 to get his side to 456(and achieve a MOM award in a victory), coming in at 5/112 to get his side to 329(and again achieve a MOM award, this time joint with Symcox in a draw) and then finally, the most ridiculous of all, coming in at 5/89 and getting his side to 259... a little less this time, but he scored 132 of the 170 runs that were scored while he was at the crease. Pakistan won by 29 runs here but it was Mustaq Ahmed who got the MOM award this time for his 9 wickets and 22 useful runs. Fair enough - Azhar still could still pat himself on the back though for his effort.
Something happening once or twice could be called a fluke, but this happened 3 times. And then he never again came close to this level of success with the bat. He had a few bright spots with the ball at international level, including 3 fivefers and a best of 6/18 in ODIs, but still averaging 39 as a bowler in that format is not very memorable.
His overall FC returns of 31 averaging bat and 25 averaging bowler make me feel he was deep down more of a bowling all-rounder, but those 3 innings really pose some questions about how good this guy could have been.
So cricket fans old enough to remember this era, what was the buzz like surrounding him in the late '90s? Did people think he was gonna the savior of Pakistan cricket? Funny to think about now
Anyway when I got older I was pretty surprised to find that the start of Mahmood's test career was a higher peak than Razzaq and Afridi reached, comfortably in fact.
128* and 50* in his test debut against SA at home in late '97, then of course 4 months later on his first test tour, to SA, in early '98 he racked up two more tons in the first two tests of that series(136 and 132). He never passed 50 again or outside these 3 matches/4 innings at test level but the details of these 4 innings is pretty crazy.
Allan Donald and Shaun Pollock featured in all 3 of these matches. The other bowlers were a variety of other guys, including Kallis, Klusener, De Villiers, McMillan, Symcox, Cronje and Schultz. For those in the know, there's only really 1-2 weak points in this list of names. It's a who-who of the amazing bowlers SA had to offer in the '90s. One attack of Donald/Pollock/De Villiers/Klusener looks especially vicious.
And then we look at the circumstances of these knocks. Coming it at 6/206 to get his side to 456(and achieve a MOM award in a victory), coming in at 5/112 to get his side to 329(and again achieve a MOM award, this time joint with Symcox in a draw) and then finally, the most ridiculous of all, coming in at 5/89 and getting his side to 259... a little less this time, but he scored 132 of the 170 runs that were scored while he was at the crease. Pakistan won by 29 runs here but it was Mustaq Ahmed who got the MOM award this time for his 9 wickets and 22 useful runs. Fair enough - Azhar still could still pat himself on the back though for his effort.
Something happening once or twice could be called a fluke, but this happened 3 times. And then he never again came close to this level of success with the bat. He had a few bright spots with the ball at international level, including 3 fivefers and a best of 6/18 in ODIs, but still averaging 39 as a bowler in that format is not very memorable.
His overall FC returns of 31 averaging bat and 25 averaging bowler make me feel he was deep down more of a bowling all-rounder, but those 3 innings really pose some questions about how good this guy could have been.
So cricket fans old enough to remember this era, what was the buzz like surrounding him in the late '90s? Did people think he was gonna the savior of Pakistan cricket? Funny to think about now
Last edited:
