Cricketers chasing elusive milestones

​Anant Gaundalkar

Isolated instances of star players chasing elusive milestones in international cricket hard way over the years:

Javed Miandad: The master batsman and street fighter wanted to become the first ever cricketer to appear in as many as six World Cups – a record which has been equaled by yet another master batsman Sachin Tendulkar during the last edition of the championship which India won.

Making his ODI debut in the inaugural tournament in 1975 – versus West Indies at Birmingham, he played in each of the first six editions of the tourney. But his last sojourn during the subcontinent World Cup in 1996 was rather disappointing indeed.

He did not bat in the first two matches against minnows UAE & Netherlands. Then after making unbeaten 11 against England, he was run-out in the last two outings in international cricket which included his laborious 38 in the crunch quarter-final game against India at Bangalore.

His aggregate of meager 54 runs came at unlike-Miandad strike rate of 51.92. Throughout the championship, he was no where his best and just managed to through the motion.

Images: AP/AFP

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