Pakistan seamer Wahab Riaz suffered a couple of sleepless nights after he recorded one of the worst bowling figures in the history of One-day Internationals against England in the third ODI at Tent Bridge.
The game that made its way to the Guinness Book of World Records for the highest total by a team in ODIs, 444, was a “nightmare”, says Riaz, who leaked more than 100 runs in the famous game.
The bowler is unable to forget his 10 wicketless overs for 110 runs, which is only three short of matching former Australia quick Mick Lewis’ all-time worst ODI figures of 0-113 against South Africa in 2006 where the Proteas chased down 434.
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“I couldn’t sleep for four to five days and kept reflecting on the reasons for my disastrous performance. The Nottingham game was a nightmare for me and the entire team,” he told the Express Tribune about the record-breaking match which Pakistan lost by 169 runs.
According to Riaz, the game was also a turning point in his career which made him reflect on a lot of things. Following Pakistan’s 4-1 ODI series defeat, Riaz could finally overcome his nightmares when he took 3-18 in their nine-wicket T20 International win against England in Manchester. He credited his return to form to former Pakistani allrounder Azhar Mahmood, who is now the team’s bowling coach.
“Mahmood worked tirelessly with me and gave me a plan to follow. Before the T20I, we devised a strategy and I am really happy that I succeeded in executing the plans. I am very happy that I roared back at Old Trafford,” Wahab said after winning the man of the match award for his brilliant spell.
Pakistan had a decent start to their two-month long tour of England. The visitors drew the Test series 2-2, but lost the ODI series 4-1. However, they bounced back in style to clinch the one-off Twenty20 game to end the tour on a happy note.
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The Men in Green are currently ruling the ICC Test Cricket Rankings but are ninth and seventh in ODI and T20 rankings respectively.
Riaz believes that the team will soon regain a good position in the limited-overs format, “We did very well in the Tests and although we couldn’t win the ODIs, we learned some important lessons and will definitely improve our performance in the format soon.”
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