Saeed Ajmal
Saeed Ajmal (Urdu:سعید اجمل); born 14 October 1977) is a Pakistani cricketer. He is a right-arm off-spin bowler who also uses the Doosra to good effect. Ajmal made his One Day International debut for Pakistan in July 2008, and a year later played his first Test.He is presently The Number One bowler in the world In one day internationals According to the ICC WORLD RANKINGS .
Early life and domestic cricket
Ajmal has played for Faisalabad since his debut in 1995 at the age of 18, also representing Khan Research Laboratories and occasionally Islamabad. After a successful season in 2007–08 for Khan Research Laboratories, he was named in Pakistan's squad for the 2008 Asia Cup.[1]
International career
He made his debut against India, taking the wicket of Yusuf Pathan in an eight-wicket[2] before taking two wickets in a ten-wicket victory over Bangladesh, although the team had no chance of progressing to the competition's final.[3]
From there he has had a rapid rise in the team in just over a full year. He had an excellent time at the 2009 ICC World Twenty20, bowling at an economical rate and regularly taking wickets along with his spin partner Shahid Afridi. He was then picked for the Sri Lankan series in Sri Lanka where he had made solid performances in the Test matches, being picked ahead of Danish Kaneria in two of the matches.
In Aril 2009, Ajmal was reported by umpires for having a suspect bowling action. An independent test the following month demonstrated that Ajmal's arm flexed within the 15 degree tolerance allowed by the International Cricket Council.[4]
Ajmal's good form continued in the 2010 ICC World Twenty20 as he was Pakistan's leading wicket taker. However despite his good form he was known for conceding three sixes to Michael Hussey in what has been hailed as the most thrilling Twenty20 match of all time as Australia were in trouble and Ajmal was the unfortunate bowler who bowled that final over.[5]
Shortly after this the Pakistan team began there long tour of England and in the two Test matches played against Australia spinner Danish Kaneria was selected ahead of him. In the 1st Test against England Kaneria was selected ahead of Ajmal as well. However after poor bowling by Kaneria, Ajmal was selected and he took his career best bowling figures of 5/82[6] Despite Pakistan restricting England the team suffered a top order collapse and Zulqarnain Haider scored 88 and Ajmal also showed that he has the abiltiy to bat when he scored 50 runs these two men helped Pakistan lead a revival after being bowled out for 72 on the first day. Along with Zulqarnain Haider they together continued to frustrate the England and when it was stumps on day three Pakistan had a 112-run lead however Zulqarnain Haider and Ajmal were out on 88 and 50 respectively and so Pakistan were left on the final wicket with Mohammad Asif and Umar Gul.[7] During the series against England Pakistan became englufed in a spot fixing scandal after the fourth test and in a later secret interview it was unveiled by alleged fixer Mazhar Majeed that Ajmal, Abdul Razzaq, Younis Khan and Shahid Afridi were difficult to bribe. He stated that Ajmal was too religious to get involved into fixing.[8].After an amazing display of bowling against Srilanka, Ajmal is currently ICC's #1 Bowler in Odi's.
Skills in the art of spin
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"With HawkEye coming in, left-arm spinners slide the ball on for lbws. Offspinners get a lot of lbws from round the wicket, so you [batsman] have to work really hard, and a bloke who's got a doosra you have to work extra special hard. |
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—England batsman Kevin Pietersen[9]
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Ajmal is known as an excellent spinner of the ball and strong especially against left-handers. He has a well disguised doosra and keeps it as a mystery while he bowls. His technique is noted for causing more spin than speed as that is what Ajmal prefers [9] Which in a sense is similar to Danish Kaneria who likes to bowl slow spin but Kaneria has a different case as when he picks up more speed he tends to lose the spin of the ball. When Pakistan started their tour of England in 2010, former Pakistani off-spinner and the founder of the doosra, Saqlain Mushtaq had a coaching session with Ajmal to advise him on his spin techniques [10] Ajmal's spin technique came in especially handy against England in 2010 has he took his first 5-wicket haul to help restrict England. Kevin Pietersen congratulated Ajmal on the amount of spin he achieved. Ajmal started his international cricket in limited-overs cricket and was one of the early off-spinners to possess the skills of the doosra. A stat shows that out of Ajmal's 38 wickets in Twenty20 cricket, 13 of them have been stumped - the most for any bowler in the game. Also, it was off Ajmal's off-break that Zulqarnain Haider collected his maiden international stumping.
Test bowling
- 5 wickets in an innings
- 10-wickets in a match
References
External links
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Sohail Tanvir was named in the original squad but injuries led to him being withdrawn. Junaid Khan was sent as his replacement
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| Persondata |
| Name |
Ajmal, Saeed |
| Alternative names |
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| Short description |
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| Date of birth |
14 October 1977 |
| Place of birth |
Faisalabad, Punjab |
| Date of death |
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| Place of death |
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