The Pakistani players are always known for their funny run out despite playing cricket for a long period of time and it was in show once again in the first one day international match they played against Zimbabwe today.
Imam ul Haq and Haris Sohail were at the crease and the Zimbabwe bowling unit was creating pressure through some economical overs. It was slightly difficult for the batsmen to rotate the strike frequently.
Imam played a square cut towards backward point and he probably thought the ball went between the gap of backward point and shot third man, but the fielder put on a great effort there and didn’t let the ball go past him.
Imam, however, had already called Haris for a single and Haris, as any non-striker would do, responded to the single and ran towards the striker’s end, but Imam changed his mind mid-way.
As the fielder stopped the ball, Imam refused the single he himself had called for, but by that time, Haris was already too far down the track and returning back to the non-striker’s end was impossible for him.
So, Haris tried to get to the striker’s end to save himself and Imam also tried to dive towards the same end to save his own wicket. In a nutshell, both the Pakistani batsmen competed among themselves as to who would reach the crease first.
As it turned out, Haris got to the striker’s end first and it was Imam who had to return to the pavilion. It was a really funny run out and it was, at that point of time, a massive blow for Pakistan because Imam was well set and was inching towards his half-century.
Haris, however, steadied the ship for Pakistan later as he scored a sparkling half-century and guided Pakistan to a reasonable total of 281 which wouldn’t be easy to chase down for Zimbabwe.
