A Pakistani whirlwind

1968
The birth of one of the most exciting and productive opening batsmen. Several of Saeed Anwar's (http://content-usa.cricinfo.com/link_to_database/PLAYERS/PAK/S/SAEED_ANWAR_07001981/) Test centuries for Pakistan turned into big ones, often away from home. His first Test ton, for instance, was 169 against New Zealand at Wellington in 1993-94. He also belted 176 against England at The Oval in 1996, as well as an unbeaten 188, his highest Test score, at Calcutta in 1998-99. But it's Anwar's style and speed of scoring that will stay in the memory: according to the Almanack, his runs at Lord's in 1996 "typified the uninhibitedness of modern Pakistani batting". His one-day international record is one of the very best and his 20 hundreds included the highest score by any batsman: 194 against India at Chennai (http://content-usa.cricinfo.com/link_to_database/ARCHIVE/1996-97/OD_TOURNEYS/IC-IND/PAK_IND_IC-IND_ODI6_21MAY1997.html) in 1996-97.

Source: Cricinfo

One of the best openers the world has produced, and truly a Pakistani Great.

Your comments on this classy player.

The birth of one of the most exciting and productive opening batsmen. Several of Saeed Anwar's (http://content-uk.cricinfo.com/link_to_database/PLAYERS/PAK/S/SAEED_ANWAR_07001981/) Test centuries for Pakistan turned into big ones, often away from home. His first Test ton, for instance, was 169 against New Zealand at Wellington in 1993-94. He also belted 176 against England at The Oval in 1996, as well as an unbeaten 188, his highest Test score, at Calcutta in 1998-99. But it's Anwar's style and speed of scoring that will stay in the memory: according to the Almanack, his runs at Lord's in 1996 "typified the uninhibitedness of modern Pakistani batting". His one-day international record is one of the very best and his 20 hundreds included the highest score by any batsman: 194 against India at Chennai (http://content-uk.cricinfo.com/link_to_database/ARCHIVE/1996-97/OD_TOURNEYS/IC-IND/PAK_IND_IC-IND_ODI6_21MAY1997.html) in 1996-97.

late again, already posted.

We all dearly miss this classy opening batsman. Even took singles with elegance and exquisite timing. Saeed Anwer has a degree in Computer Science and lost interest in cricket after his daughter’s unfortunate early passing away in 2000.

The below from an Indian website:-

Saeed Anwar is up there today - and he is there because he has a remarkable ability that negates the need to be physically strong. He works on the premise that it doesn't matter what speed a ball crosses a boundary line by. To get there is what is important, and bowlers all over the world will agree that he gets there a little too often for comfort. That innings of 194 displayed all those wonderful qualities associated with Anwar.

The first two on that list are timing and placement. It's incredible how often we take those two words for granted, especially placement. You would imagine it was bread and butter stuff for a professional cricketer; like the ability to be precise is for a surgeon, for example. Yet, the best surgeons in the world are more precise than the others. Similarly, the best batsmen time the ball better and place it better than anyone else. It allows them to score more runs with fewer shots. And on today's evidence, there are very few batsman in the world who can do it better than Anwar.

Anwar's mysterious illness, which kept him out of cricket for over three months, was a subject of much speculation. The simple explanation was that the illness has made him sick of food and that had affected his immune system. He had been put on a special diet and things appeared to be on the mended. The Chennai knock may have answered some medical questions too. It was played under excruciating conditions, an innings which could be compared to the double century of Dean Jones in the October heat of Chennai some years ago when he kept retching but batted on and on.

For one who is recovering from an illness, Anwar's batting was simply out of this world. He has proved that a bowler is as good as the batsman makes him out to be. That day at Chepauk the left-hander must have smelt the breeze of Clifton beach and not the Marina. The heat in Chennai was quite obviously getting to him, for he had been unwell before the series and had only just got back into the Pakistan team. From sitting on his haunches in the first five overs of the innings, Saeed Anwar's transformation once he was given a runner was truly remarkable. All he had to do was to play the brilliant array of shots he has and if the ball did not go to the boundary, Shahid Afridi was there to run for him. Not once did he sit on his haunches after the runner came on and when he was finally dismissed after a superlative record-breaking 194, there was not too much sweat on his brow.

Anwar was at the crease for 205 minutes and hammered 22 fours and five sixes to give Pakistan a huge total of 327 runs in 50 overs. It meant that India had to score at a high asking rate of 6.56 an over. Anwar's score beat Viv Richards' world record score of 189 against England at Old Trafford in 1984. But this knock was played under duress as he had pulled a muscle early on and needed a runner in the form of Shahid Afridi. But the record of being the first-ever double centurion of one-day cricket eluded Anwar as his swivel shot ended in the hands of Ganguly, who held on to the ball as if for dear life. Anwar returned to a standing ovation from the Chennai crowd.

heres a very good article on saeed anwar


Limelight: A look back at Suave Saeed

by Ateeq Abdul Rauf

Where would Pakistan cricket have been in the 1990s without the stylish Saeed Anwar and how sore our eyes are now that he has left the cricket arena? Forming a dynamic opening partnership with Aamer Sohail, Saeed at one time was One-Day International cricket’s most prolific century-maker. From his delicate glance off the hips to his flashing cover-drives to his lofty strokes down the ground, Saeed Anwar's strokeplay was chocolate for the eyes. When Saeed decided to dedicate his life to his religious obligations after the 2003 World Cup, Pakistan cricket lost a superb left-hand opening batsman and a national asset.

Saeed's cricket story is one of the most tortuous start and stop careers in world cricket. If it is anything to go by, he started off his international Test career with a pair and ended it with a century. But, in between, so much more happened than numbers can even suggest.

After one of the humbler starts in world cricket in 1989, Saeed, starting off predominantly as a One-Day player, was dropped from the international squad for the West Indies tour in 1993. He made a resounding return later in the year in Sharjah, scoring three successive centuries and becoming only the second Pakistani after Zaheer Abbas to do so. His partnerships with Aamer Sohail were a supporting shoulder for Pakistan's batting order all through the 1990s. After a wonderful World Cup in 1996 which ended with one of the darkest defeats in Pakistan cricket history in Bangalore against arch-rivals India, Saeed continued to hammer the opposition bowlers on English soil and subsequent series in 1996. Saeed's magnificent calendar year earned him the Wisden Cricketer of the Year award in 1997.

An arcane illness plagued him at the end of 1996. After recovery, Saeed once again marked his return to international cricket with a vengeance, racking up 194 in a solitary One-Day innings in Madras in the Independence Cup in India in 1997, the highest score by an individual in a One-Day match. Saeed continued his good run till the 1999 World Cup in England which saw him help Pakistan reach the final. In 2000, a knee injury forced him out of competitive cricket for a year.

Shortly after his third return to international cricket, Saeed Anwar played his last Test match against Bangladesh in Multan during which he learnt of the death of his infant daughter. He turned into a devout Muslim shortly afterwards and later commented that Islam had helped him become a stoic sportsman. He was one of the several veteran players playing for Pakistan in the 2003 World Cup. In his second-last innings against India, he creamed a glorious century to enable Pakistan to reach a competitive total. He officially retired from the game in August 2003 when he cited that his services were no longer required by the team. Born in 1968 in Karachi, Saeed appeared in 55 Tests and 247 ODIs for Pakistan. He averaged 45.52 in Tests and 39.21 in ODIs. He accumulated more than 12,000 runs in international cricket. Despite scoring 31 tons, the fact that he could not add a double century to his cricketing resume might be his greatest unfulfilled wish. Turning his left arm over, Saeed also took 6 ODI wickets and also snapped up 60 catches during his international career. After retirement, he had a short stint in the National Cricket Academy as batting coach. Saeed Anwar will, no doubt, live long in the memories of those who had the fortune to watch him.