5 precious World Cup final innings without a century

4. Imran Khan 72 vs England, 1992 World Cup final

Imran Khan

Pakistan's World Cup campaign in 1992 had been nothing less of an embarrassing one early on. With just one win out of the five games, an early exit for them had been looming. The no-result against England in the group game had given them a lifeline in which they were blown away for 74. From there on, Pakistan had to beat Australia, Sri Lanka, and New Zealand. The Pakistanis ran through them all with some amount of difficulty though.

In the final against England, Imran Khan promoted himself to No. 3 as a specialist batsman after the openers had departed. Graham Gooch, the English skipper had let the game slip from their hands when he dropped Imran Khan on 9. Imran Khan went on to score 72 and along with Javed Miandad added 139 for the fourth wicket. The onslaught in the death overs by Inzamam Ul-Haq and Wasim Akram lead them to a competitive 249.

England had a jittery start with the openers and the middle order batsmen departing which left them teetering at 69-4. Allan Lamb and Neil Fairbrother brought England back on track with a 71 run partnership. Wasim Akram burst with two wickets in his second spell in the 35th over which had nearly put England on the brink. Imran Khan took the final wicket of Richard Illingworth to complete a successful World Cup performance.