Saqlain Mushtaq has made a test century.
Unless you have, which I am assuming you haven’t, you can’t know the blood, perspiration, mental strength and balls it takes to make a test century against New Zealand in Christchruch.
Apparently it takes at least 291 balls.
That was the old (Pakistani) Saqlain.
He is gone.
Now we have the new (English) Saqlain.
This model comes with a resplendent beard.
The Pakistani model couldn’t even grow a soul patch.
The reason I am talking about the old and the new, is that I just saw the new Saqlain try and slog his first ball out of the park when his team just wanted 5 runs to get the bonus point.
One of those bonus points they wanted so bad, they offered Shoaib a trip to sunny England.
It seems the new Saqlain is more Pakistani than the old Saqlain.
Which seems odd to me.
The conventional school of thought is that going to England makes you more conservative and plain.
For the godfather of the doosra, England is a place to lose his innihitions, get free and freaky.
Slogging wildly when his team needs him to button in.
Also growing one hell of a beard.
Not quite a Dirty Dirk beard, but still.
Surrey got the bonus point, although you couldn’t say he had much to do with it.
He did make 4, then his leg stump took a holiday.
The new Saqlain did entertain me.
Hmmm… this is not about county cricket…: )
No, I wasn’t at a Surrey match when i wrote it.
On the topic of the Diggler’s beard – it was out in force today – 2 for 36 and a thrilling 1 (run out) against the spinsters Swann and Patel
Yes i got a message that the great man was in. And he seemed in top form.