As Yousuf reached yet another century, I think it is only fitting to open a thread in tribute to Mohammad Yousuf. I think this thread should include as many facts and accomplishments of Mohammad. Videos, Pictures, and articles to really honor our current number 1 batsman. He has done us proud all year and taken Pakistan on his shoulders. Lets celeberate his success!!!
Yousuf at his best:
Re: A Tribute to Mohammad Yousuf
Yousuf revels in century record
Pakistan’s Mohammad Yousuf has become the first batsman to score eight Test centuries in a single calendar year.
He scored 102 in the third Test against West Indies to beat the previous record of seven, achieved by Viv Richards and Sri Lanka’s Aravinda da Silva.
He is now 46 runs off Richards’ record of 1,710 runs in a year.
Yousuf said: “I am delighted to be able to break Richards’ record and to be ranked alongside him. He was the greatest player of the century.”
Yousuf said he loved watching Richards play but used Pakistan’s Javed Miandad as a template for his own batting.
“Richards has been my favourite batsman, but my inspiration has always been Miandad. I have styled myself on him.”
And out of the eight tons his has scored in 2006 he ranked the 202 in the first Test against England at Lord’s as his most satisfying. “I rate that knock very highly because it came at the home of cricket and it was a turning point for me to get a big score in an away Test.”
Re: A Tribute to Mohammad Yousuf
Truly inspirational, brilliant, great moment in cricketing history. Moyo performance is poetry in motion. Thankyou Moyo, we shall remember this era with great pleasure…you are one of the greatest…
Re: A Tribute to Mohammad Yousuf
what a year he has had. I dont think n e 1 is more elegant and fluent as him when in form just such beautiful timing, Mashallah!
Re: A Tribute to Mohammad Yousuf
I guess it will be nice if someone can put the highlights of his 8 hundreds in video section.
Re: A Tribute to Mohammad Yousuf
I remember when the news break out that Yousuf Youhana converted to Islam and changed his name to Mohammad Yousuf. Most of the people started to complain about his performance because at that time he was not performing well. I think it was either his mother or someone from his family stated that due to converting to Islam his performance declined. And look at him now...what a performance mashAllah.
InshAllah he will break the record.
Re: A Tribute to Mohammad Yousuf
Younis has quite rightly rated Viv Richards the best batsman of this era. Miandad used to milk the bowlers rather than dominate them but he was a genius nevertheless. Imran Khan called Richards the genius of his time and quite rightly so. Viv looked majestic at the crease and batted like a champion for much of his career plus he made his runs against the likes of Lillee, Imran Khan, Thompson, Hadlee, Wasim Akram, Botham, Bob Willis and Kapil.
I have always rated Miandad more highly than Inzi. Miandad had this rare ability to occupy the crease for long periods and bat well under pressure. Think of all the runs he scored in important matches, fifties in WC 92 Final and SF, 70 v Australia in 1987 WC SF. Yousuf (4 years younger than Inzi) the way he’s going is well on course to becoming Pakistan’s most successful batsman in terms of both runs and centuries.
People often talk about Inzi’s 17 hundreds in matches won by Pakistan but that’s a misleading stat. e.g. Inzi scored a hundred in his 100th test in Bangalore but it was Younis Khan who made 267 in the same match who was the player of the match. A more relevant stat is not hundreds scored in matches won by Pakistan but hundreds that contributed directly to the win. (like Inzi’s hundred v Bangladesh at Multan)
http://www.cricinfo.com/db/ARCHIVE/2004-05/PAK_IN_IND/SCORECARDS/PAK_IND_T3_24-28MAR2005.html
Re: A Tribute to Mohammad Yousuf
it will be good that if we can add articles on Yousaf... it is really a great achievement but the lack of articles on this achievement is equally surprising... i expect one from Rameez Raja in any journal/paper atleast.
Re: A Tribute to Mohammad Yousuf
WelDone Yousaf :Salute:
Re: A Tribute to Mohammad Yousuf
Yousaf if he stays fit and keeps his form he will no doubt break Pakistan's record of most 100's in tests and it will be a long time before that will be broken. Very impressive record so far.
Re: A Tribute to Mohammad Yousuf
The spirit of Sir Viv Richards coursed through the National Stadium all day. His record for the most Test runs in a calendar year has stood for 30 years now, unsurpassed long enough for it to attain similar status as the legendary four-minute mile record. Mohammad Yousuf began the day 149 runs short of breaking it and ended it, less than a half-century away and one innings for the year left.
Other records were broken or equalled though; nobody has now scored more than the eight Test hundreds in one year that he has, an honour previously held jointly by Richards and Aravinda de Silva. This was also his fifth hundred in five Tests, a feat Jacques Kallis has equalled and only the greatest, Sir Don Bradman, surpassed. As he spoke to reporters at the end of an ultimately disappointing day for Pakistan, he sensibly refused to be drawn into comparisons with Sir Viv.
“Viv Richards was the best player of this era. There is absolutely no one like him around and breaking his centuries record is a huge thing for me. But I’ll admit I cannot play like him at all. Many people had pointed out that I can break his record number of runs this year too and it was on my mind. But he was a match-winning player unlike any. The bigger the bowler the better his batting would get.”
Though he chose his Lord’s double as the best of his eight this year, the 102 he crafted on a sluggard of a pitch this afternoon was, like his batting this year, on a plane different to that of his fellow batsmen. Initially he struggled to adjust to the pace and indeterminate bounce but a clip through midwicket and a dab through point in the over after lunch suggested he was coming to terms with the surface. Thereafter, as batsman after batsman faltered, Yousuf glided on. As Pakistan inched on at under three an over, Yousuf floated to a hundred off 155 balls; of the 32 boundaries Pakistan hit, Yousuf’s wrists were responsible for 15.
“I have been playing on pitches like this around the world for years now. If you have to make runs you should be able to make them anywhere. It is slow, some balls are keeping low and it will become difficult to score as the match progresses,” said Yousuf.
Such has been his form, and Pakistan’s reliance on him - those slender shoulders have produced over 35% of Pakistan’s total runs scored this series - that his captain Inzamam-ul-Haq was moved to call him, in his column, Pakistan’s greatest batsman ever. Again, as regular as a cover drive, came the modesty. “I don’t think so. I mean Inzamam is such a great batsman himself and his record speaks for itself. I am grateful that he thinks it but Javed Miandad and Hanif Mohammad were very, very big players.”
A few runs from the captain wouldn’t go amiss and his 18 today was another woeful struggle to relocate his groove. And when you become Daren Ganga’s first international wicket of any kind, you know that form has well and truly deserted you. The class, though Yousuf reminded everyone, is still with him.
“When Inzamam scores runs, the team scores with him and does well. He has done it all, won matches, saved matches, everything. He is a little out of form at the moment and we hope he can get it back. But there is no player like him.” If this last year has been anything to go by, clearly there is one.
Re: A Tribute to Mohammad Yousuf
canwe keep this thread as a tribute to Mohammed Yousef and not to who wore helmets. Open another thread if you want to discuss that.
Re: A Tribute to Mohammad Yousuf
Yousuf now has 914 points in ICC ratings which topples best ever rating points that many other best batsmen have achieved. Here is the list of few greats and max ratings that they got in their career.
Lara: 911
Sachin: 898
Inzi: 870
Dravid: 892
Kallis: 896
and I am not giving out statement that Yousuf is better than all of the above batsmen so don't stone me to death :). I am just putting some interesting stats.
Re: A Tribute to Mohammad Yousuf
Ponting's career best rating of 937 is the best among his contemporaries.
Re: A Tribute to Mohammad Yousuf
Mohammad Yousuf may not be the match winner like Miandad and Inzamam but he is one heck of a reliable player and gets even better. He is more stylish and technical than Javed and Inzamam and with this pace - on his way to be the best with respect to highest runs and centuries by a Pakistani. Good luck Yousuf, you have done a great service for Pakistan. We are all proud of you.
Re: A Tribute to Mohammad Yousuf
In fact 940 now
Among the batsmen of this era
Ponting, Hayden and M.Yousuf tops the list with first 3 spots of highest ever ratings.
Re: A Tribute to Mohammad Yousuf
22 hundreds in 73 tests is an awesome record. Yousuf (32) if he stays fit and keeps his form should play for another 5-6 years. This year we have played 11 tests (unusual by Pakistani standards, our average is about 7-9 tests/year). Yousuf could quite conceivably end up with 10,000+ runs and 35-40 test hundreds (if he scores 3-4 hundreds per year). Lara I suspect will go on playing test cricket for another 2 years to try and make Ponting's job as difficult as possible (He's in form and noone in the Windies side is really threatening his position). Ponting will have the last laugh though and barring a sudden unexpected dip in form or some other mishap, should become not only the leading runscore in test history but also the first batsman to score over 50 hundreds.
A Tribute to Mohammad Yousuf / Legend (Merged)
I found a nice biography/article on Muhammad Yousaf .. Its a long article i will post few lines…
**
**Mohammad Yousaf **
**
Full name Mohammad Yousuf
**Born ** August 27, 1974, Lahore, Punjab
**Current ** Age 32 years 95 days
Major teams Pakistan, ACC Asian XI, Bahawalpur Lahore
Batting style Right-hand bat
Childhood Cricket
Spend childhood in Railway Colony where he started playing cricket and since then and have been playing cricket.
http://www.meraraabta.com/showimg.php?s=secure%2Fuploads%2FMohammad+Yousaf.jpg&w=200&h=250
**Biography of **Mohammad Yousaf ****
**Mohammad Yousuf** formerly **Yousuf Youhana**, (born August 27, 1974, Lahore, Punjab) is a Pakistani cricketer who has been a member of the Pakistani national cricket team since 1998. He made his Test debut against South Africa at Durban and ODI debut against Zimbabwe at Harare. He has scored over 7,000 ODI runs at an average of 41.01 (3rd highest batting average among Pakistani batsmen after Zaheer Abbas and Javed Miandad) and over 6,000 Test runs at an average of 56.05 (highest batting average amongst current Pakistani batsmen) with 22 Test centuries. He has the record of scoring the most runs without being dismissed in ODIs, 405 against Zimbabwe in Zimbabwe in 2002-03. He has also scored a 23-ball fifty in ODIs, and a 68-ball hundred. In Tests he has scored a 27-ball fifty, which is 3rd fastest by any player. He was top scorer during the successive years of 2002 and 2003 in the world in ODIs. In 2004, he scored a memorable 111 against the Australians in the Boxing Day Test. In December 2005, he scored 223 against England at Lahore, also earning him the man of the match award. Seven months later in July 2006, when Pakistan toured England, he scored 202 and 48 in the first Test, again earning himself the man of the match award. He followed up with 192 in the third Test at Headingley and 128 in the final Test at the Oval.
Yousuf is known for his ability to score runs at exceptional rate through his great technique and composed strokeplay. Although capable of hitting the ball hard, Yousuf likes to get his runs running between the wickets.
For Full Article.