One of the finest batsmen produced by Pakistan and one of my favourite players - pure class, elegance and grace on the crease, exquisite timing being his hallmark
What a stance; notice the high backlift and the sweet timing. India’s Mohammad Azharuddin later copied it.
What a player!! I cannot imagine how many runs/tons he would have scored had he been playing in this era.
93 v Mighty West Indies at The Oval in the 1979 Prudential World Cup Semifinal: Zaheer joined Majid Khan (81) at the crease on 10/1 after the early loss of Sadiq Mohammad and despite chasing a mammoth target of 294 (used to be a huge score in those days in 60 overs) the two batted with calm and assurance against arguably the most fearsome quartet in world cricket ever - Holding, Roberts, Croft and Garner - putting on 166 for the second wicket. But as we have seen so often with Pakistan, the rest of the batters incl. Asif Iqbal and a young Javed Miandad just crumbled under pressure after the fall of Zaheer handing Windies victory by 43 runs.
Majid though not as brilliant with the bat as Zaheer, deserves perhaps to be in an all-time Pakistan ODI XI for that partnership (166) alone with Zaheer
scorecard: WI 293, PAK 250
http://www.cricinfo.com/ci/engine/match/65062.html
Zaheer takes on Lillee & co.
**108 v Australia in Benson & Hedges World Series Cup, Sydney 1981: **Pakistan won by 6 wickets
scorecard: AUS 222/6 (50 overs), PAK 223/4 (43.2 0vers)
http://www.cricinfo.com/ci/engine/match/65324.html
118 off 86 balls v India, Multan 1982
scorecard: PAK 263/2 (40 overs) beat India (226/7) by 37 runs
http://www.cricinfo.com/ci/engine/match/64198.html
Look at Imran’s bowling figures: 8-4-14-0!!