Azhar at his very best

[ravishingravi]

5 fours in a row. Remember watching this live. Still gives me goosebumps. Stand and deliver stuff. If anyone has the footage of the whole innings please upload it or provide the link. I remember after reaching his 100 he pointed to Madan Lal who had made him cranky for some reason. He had injured his wrist and had to come at No. 7 with India down and out and went all guns blazing ably supported by Kumble who scored 88. PtBFoRZPFq4

[ravishingravi]

Mods, kindly edit the title

[vamos_rafa]

# 3 was :hatsoff:. His record at Eden was exemplary

[anish233]

one of the best ever... and one of my all time favs... until he sold India :(

[daryl1985]

Was expecting to see a photo with a bookie :giggle:

[ganeshran]

Used to be one of my favorite player back when I started watching cricket, even more than SRT. But lost all respect for him after the fixing scandal. A lot of laxman's shots have Azhar's influence in them, the wristy play and the lazy elegance are two things he learnt from Azhar.

[phaedrus]

Used to be one of my favorite player back when I started watching cricket' date= even more than SRT. But lost all respect for him after the fixing scandal. A lot of laxman's shots have Azhar's influence in them, the wristy play and the lazy elegance are two things he learnt from Azhar.

+1. used to love to see him bat. was better to watch than laxman. and was great between wickets. started hating him for what he did though, bloody fixer. this is one of his best. love the innings in cape town, was better because of the conditions. [ame=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_Li1uwB_3hA]Mohd. Azharuddin 115 Capetown v RSA 1997 - YouTube[/ame]

[ravishingravi]

+1. used to love to see him bat. was better to watch than laxman. and was great between wickets. started hating him for what he did though, bloody fixer. this is one of his best. love the innings in cape town, was better because of the conditions.

Agree. Out batted Tendulkar in parts which not many can do. It was one of the best partnerships I have seen.

[Sir john]

He was a legend.:agree:

[ganeshran]

+1. used to love to see him bat. was better to watch than laxman. and was great between wickets. started hating him for what he did though, bloody fixer. this is one of his best. love the innings in cape town, was better because of the conditions.

He had that swagger while walking on to bat. There was also the hint of arrogance in how he navigated the ball from the offside to the midwicket boundary using just the wrists.

[ravishingravi]

In that partnership at Cape Town, I vividly remember Nelson Mandela had come to meet the players at lunch time. The host said to to Mandela enjoy batsmanship of Tendulkar and Azhar couple of times. Till that point India had scored 66 and 100 in 1st test and were 120 / 5 in the 2nd test. At that moment, I thought to myself why is this guy building this up for an epic fail. But we know what followed. Sachin played the best cover drive I have ever seen in this test of Donald.

[phaedrus]

they looked imperious. the second session is the stuff of legends. you could make out from azhar's stance when he was looking to be aggressive and attack the bowlers and he was in just that kind of mood. used to get light bats and try to flick the balls outside off to the legside when we were kids. not many succeeded :P

[Rahul48]

I remember watching this live. Awesome stuff from Azhar

[vamos_rafa]

Generally in any tournament, he used to string one such partenrship with Sachin. Even in the Desert storm final, he had scored a 50. Sachin used to be Azhar's go-to man in any tough situation. He was the one who had promoted him to the top of the order. They shared an awesome chemistry but for some reason even that has been maligned now. And Azza's swagger was awesome. He would have been a reputed character had he concentrated a bit more on his game. I rememeber my dad was a big Azzu fan and I was a Sachin fan(still am). And he used to tell me that Azza has that class which nobody can match. I was a kid then so could not understand but it's there to be seen now.

[Ram]

Isnt it ironic? when we were a sh!tty test team full of mediocre chokers and shameless match-fixers, the crowds poured in by their 1000s to watch test cricket. Now, we're one of the best teams in the world, we rarely put a foot wrong and yet, test cricket is by and large being played in front of empty seats. P.S; I actually distinctly remember following this game on radio, back in 96. Brings back wonderful memories.

[Sachin=GOD]

Sheer brilliance. He used to be one of my favorite players - such an outstanding batsman and a very good fielder but since I found out about fixing etc now even when I see such brilliant stuff from him, I just cannot seem to enjoy it as much as I would when watching some other batsmen (like Ganguly or Dravid or Gavaskar etc)

[Sir john]

Sheer brilliance. He used to be one of my favorite players - such an outstanding batsman and a very good fielder but since I found out about fixing etc now even when I see such brilliant stuff from him' date=' I just cannot seem to enjoy it as much as I would when watching some other batsmen (like Ganguly or Dravid or Gavaskar etc)[/quote'] why you repeating same thing again nd again.:hehe:

[ravishingravi]

In that partnership at Cape Town, I vividly remember Nelson Mandela had come to meet the players at lunch time. The host said to to Mandela enjoy batsmanship of Tendulkar and Azhar couple of times. Till that point India had scored 66 and 100 in 1st test and were 120 / 5 in the 2nd test. At that moment, I thought to myself why is this guy building this up for an epic fail. But we know what followed. Sachin played the best cover drive I have ever seen in this test of Donald.

8_JxA2eYlQA At 8 : 30.

[Sooda]

That stand in Cape town was one of the best hours of cricket I have watched as an India fan.

[Viki_J]

hey thanks for the share..ya i agree it was the best :icflove: