Imran Nazir: “Cricket wise it will remain the biggest regret of my life. It will continue to hurt until my last breath”
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Pakistan batsman Imran Nazir has admitted that not leading his country to victory over India in the 2007 World T20 final “will continue to hurt until my last breath”.
Nazir smashed 33 runs off 14 balls in the match before being run out by Robin Uthappa, and Pakistan ultimately lost the nail-biting encounter by five runs.
Nazir admitted that he should have “won that match single-handedly for Pakistan”, but his failure to do so still haunts him to this day.
“Cricket wise it will remain the biggest regret of my life. It will continue to hurt until my last breath. We had a chance to create history. From a personal point of view, I can say, I should’ve won that match single-handedly for Pakistan like I had done in the ISL because when a player starts middling the ball he has the confidence,” Nazir told Cricket Baaz as quoted by Cricket Pakistan.
“I was playing really well then, unfortunately, got run-out and the match slowly slipped away, it still hurts.”
“To reach the finals of the first-ever T20 World Cup and then the kind of crowd and atmosphere was there in the finals, these sorts of things stay with you always. I knew whoever performs well that day will win. A good professional is someone who performs out of his skin for his country on such a big occasion.
“I had given a good start and had built a solid partnership but what matters, in the end, is how you finish. We couldn’t end it well. So all of this is part and parcel of the game. It was a great tournament.
“T20 is considered to be slam-bang cricket and Pakistan players had a fair idea about how to go about things compared to other countries. They took a bit of time to adjust. Our domestic competitions helped us.”
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