Pakistan's 5 greatest match-winners in ODIs

The term ‘match-winner’ could vary in meaning from individual to individual; for some it may be players ‘tilting’ the match in a winning direction and for some it may be somebody who carries his bat through or picks up wickets and runs through the tail.To be précise, ‘match-winners’ are players who can win you a match on their own and ‘big’ match-winners do it on a consistent basis. Another factor that determines a match-winner is his contribution in a winning cause; Sachin Tendulkar has been critiqued for scoring irrelevant centuries in contrast to Inzamam, who is regarded as a ‘crisis man’, who mostly contributed in winning efforts.Pakistan cricket has been blessed in this regard. They have dished out ‘match winners’ regularly, players who could change the course of the match single-handedly.On the contrary, it has been observed that no international cricket team has had so many ups and downs like Pakistan. They turn up ‘hot’ on days and fall totally ‘cold’ on other days, epitomizing inconsistency. Pakistan has over the years ushered some of the biggest names to have played the game, like Md. Yousuf, Saleem Malik, Saeed Anwar and so on.After a lot of dilly-dallying, here are the 5 names that you may unanimously agree to.

#1 Javed Miandad

Javed has always been looked at upon as the country’s greatest batsman

According to some, he is ‘the greatest match-winner’ the game has ever witnessed. They believed he could do the impossible after his last ball ‘six’ of Chetan Sharma in Sharjah 1986. During those times, this was believed to be nothing short of a miracle and Javed got the status of a demi-god.

He was a dogged fighter and always kept a price on his wicket. Some felt he did not have a copybook style, but his grit and the appetite to win under any given circumstance was unmatched, especially against fond (sarcasm) opposition India. Parallels can be drawn with modern-day Mahendra Singh Dhoni, who likes to take the game deep before launching.

He also had a good cricketing brain which is so essential for any cricketer to have and also knew the art of finishing games. He had a strong square game, needed the gaps at will and his reverse sweeps were magical to the eyes. Javed played 233 one day internationals amassing 7381 runs at a rich and handsome average of 41.70, which highlights the point of him finishing games.