While commentator Wasim Akram was asked about Pakistan opener Imam-ul-Haq’s run out in the tenth over with an Axar Patel throw striking similarly to his former team-mate and Haq’s uncle Inzamam-ul-Haq run-outs in his career, Akram and Sunil Gavaskar were bantering over the run-out tendency running in the ul Haq family.
Story continues below this ad
The trend goes back to the 90s. Notable was Pakistan’s group match against Australia at Headingley, Leeds in the 1999 ODI World Cup. A yorker from Damien Fleming in the 47th over of Pakistan’s innings had seen Inzy stuttering and falling over just outside the crease. Non-striker Wasim Akram ran towards the striker’s end with Haq being run out by Fleming. Akram had shared the incident multiple times in the past and recalled Haq’s words to him. “Wasim bhai, aap yahan kahan (Wasim,where are you here)?” Akram had told the media earlier.
A day prior to the Champions Trophy face-off, when asked by Navjot Singh Sidhu about the incident and Akram’s take on the incident, Inzy was quick to answer, ‘We decided that we have to take a run so that I get to bat. Tell me one thing, one batsman has fallen down. You don’t see it and you come running. Are you blindfolded? What did you do?,” Haq narrated on Star Sports on Saturday. Pakistan had won the match then by ten runs and Imam-ul-Haq too would be left hoping history was repeated.
“Wasim bhai, aap yahan kahan?” 🤣
Inzamam-ul-Haq takes us down memory lane with a hilarious run-out story featuring Wasim Akram!#𝗖𝗵𝗮𝗺𝗽𝗶𝗼𝗻𝘀𝗧𝗿𝗼𝗽𝗵𝘆𝗢𝗻𝗝𝗶𝗼𝗦𝘁𝗮𝗿 👉 #𝗜𝗡𝗗𝘃𝗣𝗔𝗞 | 𝗦𝗨𝗡, 𝟮𝟯𝗿𝗱 𝗙𝗘𝗕, 𝟭:𝟯𝟬 𝗣𝗠 𝗼𝗻 𝗦𝘁𝗮𝗿 𝗦𝗽𝗼𝗿𝘁𝘀!Catch the… pic.twitter.com/u1rvFPoEzL
— Star Sports (@StarSportsIndia) February 22, 2025
But the runout had disrupted Pakistan’s reasonable start.
Story continues below this ad
Pakistani openers were shaping up nicely in the first powerplay with batting that was steady yet watchful. But the Indian team had bounced back in the last overs as Hardik Pandya lured Babar into playing a cover drive nicking one behind to KL Rahul and giving him a bit of a send-off. The next one ended up a throwback to the glorious 90s – and it was a theme that will never stop bringing merriment to Indians and draw out wry gasps from Pakistan fans.
After Pandya’s send-off of Babar, Axar Patel brought his rocket arms into action as he rifled the throw to catch Imam short of the crease as he ran mindlessly for a quick single. The languid uncle Inzamam ul Haq had contrived myriad ways to make reaching the crease elusive, in his day for famous run outs.
His nephew Imam would not be accused of being lazy, but the desperation to get the single, saw him go rabbiting riskily with the bat being grounded only when he saw the throw steaming in. Pakistan fans would’ve wondered wordlessly how run outs run in the much adored batting family.
At any rate, Rohit will probably promise one more dinner for that run-out and India had balanced out the powerplay with Pakistan finishing with 52/2 in ten overs.
The powerplay had looked promising for Pakistan when the much-scrutinized Babar played a couple of classic textbook cricketing shots, and later took on Hardik Pandya to score another boundary before going down the pitch to pick another four against Axar. Imam was not looking at his 100%, he played cautiously and it looked like Pakistan would close out the first powerplay without any casualty. But his Go-go Rabbit-ways ruined the powerplay for Pakistan.
