IND vs PAK: Inzy to Imam…Run-outs go retro and run in the family | Cricket News

While commentator Wasim Akram was asked about Pakan 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.
The trend goes back to the 90s. Notable was Pakan’s group match against Australia at Headingley, Leeds in the 1999 ODI World Cup. A yorker from Damien Fleming in the 47th over of Pakan’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 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 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. Pakan had won the match then ten runs and Imam-ul-Haq too would be left hoping hory was repeated.

“Wasim bhai, aap yahan kahan?” 🤣 Inzamam-ul-Haq takes us down memory lane with a hilarious run-out story featuring Wasim Akram!# 👉 # | , , : !
Catch the… pic.twitter.com/u1rvFPoEzL
— Star Sports (@StarSportsIndia) February 22, 2025
But the runout had disrupted Pakan’s reasonable start.
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Pakani 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 Pakan 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. Pakan 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 Pakan finishing with 52/2 in ten overs.

The powerplay had looked promising for Pakan 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 Pakan would close out the first powerplay without any casualty. But his Go-go Rabbit-ways ruined the powerplay for Pakan.

Nitin Sharma is an Assant Editor with the sports team of The Indian Express. Based out of Chandigarh, Nitin works with the print sports desk while also breaking news stories for the online sports team. A Ramnath Goenka Excellence in Journalism Award recipient for the year 2017 for his story ‘Harmans of Moga’, Nitin has also been a two-time recipient of the UNFPA-supported Laadli Media Awards for Gender Sensitivity for the years 2022 and 2023 respectively.

Nitin mainly covers Olympics sports disciplines with his main interests in shooting, boxing, wrestling, athletics and much more. The last 17 years with The Indian Express has seen him unearthing stories across India from as far as Andaman and Nicobar to the North East. Nitin also covers cricket apart from women’s cricket with a keen interest. Nitin has covered events like the 2010 Commonwealth Games, the 2011 ODI World Cup, 2016 T20 World Cup and the 2017 AIBA World Youth Boxing Championships.

An alumnus of School of Communication Studies, Panjab University, from where he completed his Masters in Mass Communications degree, Nitin has been an avid quizzer too. A Guru Nanak Dev University Colour holder, Nitin’s interest in quizzing began in the town of Talwara Township, a small town near the Punjab-Himachal Pradesh border. When not reporting, Nitin’s interests lie in discovering new treks in the mountains or spending time near the river Beas at his hometown. … Read More