Islamabad
Former captain Inzamam-ul-Haq believes that he would have powered his way to the world’s highest individual Test score by crossing 400 run mark on May 3, 2002 had there been some regular batsman with him at the other end on that day. ‘It was too much hot on that day. New Zealand players were totally exhausted as they were not used to such a weather. From their body language I can guess as if they were asking me ‘you may plunder as many runs as you wish but (please) allow us to go’ (out of the field),’ Inzamam said on his YouTube channel ‘TheMatchWinner’ while recalling the opening fixture of the two-match series against New Zealand at Gaddafi Stadium Lahore. ‘We’d plenty of time. Runs were also coming quite freely. But the issue was that we didn’t have wickets in hand as the last man had arrived to accompany me. I asked him (the last man), ‘can you face two to three balls in an over if such a situation arises. But he looked at me with a smile as if he was saying, ‘no, you do whatever you want’. I was left with no option but to hit sixes. Probably, in the over when I was caught out at the boundary, I’d already smashed three sixes. I just needed an hour to cross the 400 mark and set the world record but that opportunity was missed,’ added Inzamam, who notched up a triple century (329) on the second day of that clash. According to Inzamam that Test was the most memorable match of his life as in that he scored the highest runs of his career. —APP
