Kabir Ali

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Kabir Ali
England
Personal information
Batting style	Right hand bat
Bowling style	Right arm medium fast
Career statistics
	Tests	ODIs
Matches	1	14
Runs scored	10	93
Batting average	5.00	15.50
100s/50s	-/-	-/-
Top score	9	39*
Balls bowled	216	673
Wickets	5	20
Bowling average	27.19	34.10
5 wickets in innings	-	-
10 wickets in match	-	n/a
Best bowling	3/80	4/45
Catches/stumpings	-/-	1/-
As of 4 January 2007 Source: [1]

Kabir Ali (born 24 November 1980 in Moseley, Birmingham) is an English cricketer. Outside cricket he works as a model.

Contents 1 Early career 2 Domestic success and international selection 3 The final over at Bloemfontein 4 Recent career 5 References

[edit] Early career

After serving his apprenticeship in Worcestershire's Second XI and for the county's Board XI in the 38-County Cup for a couple of years, seamer Kabir Ali made his first-class debut in a drawn game against Middlesex in September 1999. He bowled respectably enough, taking 2-36 and 1-22, but the match's lateness in the season robbed him of the chance to push for a regular place in the first team. Despite several appearances in the Benson & Hedges Cup in April 2000, Kabir spent most of the first part of that season still in the second team, but pushed his way into the full XI by the summer. Also in 2000, Kabir was awarded the NBC Denis Compton Award for the most promising young Worcestershire player.

[edit] Domestic success and international selection

Over the following few years, Kabir gradually established himself as a hard-working bowler who was dedicated to his craft. His best period to date has been 2002-3; he took 138 first-class wickets in those two English seasons, including eight five-wicket innings hauls. It was thus unsurprising that he was selected to play for England in 2003, making his One Day International debut against Zimbabwe that July - although the game was a washout and Kabir had no chance to make an impression.

He was also selected for the Fourth Test at Headingley, but although he took five wickets in the match England were soundly beaten and the selectors rang the changes, bringing in Steve Harmison and Ashley Giles for Kabir and James Kirtley. As of May 2005, that Headingley match remained Kabir's solitary Test appearance, although he had made a number of further appearances at ODI level. His greatest success came against South Africa in 2004/05, when he took more wickets (13) than any other England bowler, and at Bloemfontein somehow conjured a tie from nowhere.

[edit] The final over at Bloemfontein

Kabir had bowled rather poorly throughout the match, and had seen his seven overs disappear for 49 runs, the last alone costing 13. At the end of the penultimate over, South Africa were 263/5, needing just eight runs to win. Nevertheless, with captain Michael Vaughan indisposed thanks to a stomach upset, stand-in skipper Marcus Trescothick took a gamble and entrusted Kabir with the last over.

The first ball was a disaster: a full toss that not only went for four, but was called a no-ball as well, thus conceding an extra run. South Africa still had six balls to reach their target, but now they needed just three runs, and the game looked to be over as a contest. Indeed, it might have been had Kabir's next delivery - also a full toss, to Mark Boucher - not been hit straight to Giles, who took a straightforward catch. The next two balls were far more accurate, and the South Africans could muster only a single. They still needed only two from three balls, however, and remained heavy favourites to win the game.

Next, Kabir produced another accurate ball for new batsman Ashwell Prince, and a mix-up between the South African batsmen saw Prince run out. Two runs were now needed from two balls. Shaun Pollock scampered a single from the first of these, to level the scores, but Kabir's final delivery was in just the right place and Andrew Hall failed to hit it at all. There was still the chance of a bye, but to prevent this England wicket-keeper Geraint Jones was standing up to the stumps, and completed the stumping to leave the match tied and Kabir as England's hero.

[edit] Recent career

Kabir's life was touched by tragedy in July 2003, when his two-week-old nephew died. However, his father wished him to play for Worcestershire against Derbyshire a few days later, and he put in a magnificent display. After a quiet first innings with the ball, he put on 104 with Steve Rhodes for the eighth wicket to help rescue his team from deep trouble at 190/7, and then ripped through the Derbyshire batting line-up to take 8-53, at the time the best innings analysis of his career. Thanks to Kabir's heroics, Worcestershire won the game by an innings.

The 2004 season began frustratingly for Kabir, as injury prevented him from playing until the end of May. However, some good performances in midsummer brought him a place in the squad for the Champions Trophy tournament in September, and he retained his place for the winter tour of South Africa (see above). Kabir's performances in early 2005 were unspectacular, but nevertheless he was named in the 14-man squad for that summer's triangular one-day series with Australia and Bangladesh. He played in none of the games, however, and was replaced by Matt Prior for the three-game ODI series against Australia which immediately followed.

Kabir was not in England contention during the 2006 season, and for the winter of 2006–07 he turned out for Rajasthan in the Ranji Trophy along with team-mate Vikram Solanki. Worcestershire's 2007 season began poorly, but Kabir claimed a career-best 8-50 in a rain-affected match against Lancashire in May. These were the best figures at Old Trafford for 13 years.^[1]

[edit] References

Persondata
NAME	Ali, Kabir
ALTERNATIVE NAMES
SHORT DESCRIPTION	Cricketer
DATE OF BIRTH	24 November 1980
PLACE OF BIRTH	Moseley, Birmingham, England
DATE OF DEATH
PLACE OF DEATH