Irfan Pathan is one of the best all rounders India has seen in the last 15+ years and he was a fast bowling all rounder at that which is so rare to find these days. He was a total package with both bat and ball in hand and his swing was legendary. The only regret is that Irfan Pathan could not play to his full potential in his career and was left out of the Indian team a few years before he should have. Nonetheless we are here to talk about some of his great performances and we will get into his records below.
Irfan Pathan played all 3 formats for India and he served Indian cricket with all his heart and skill. He played only 29 test matches which is too less but he got 100 Test wickets in these with an 32.26 and in the batting department he scored 1105 runs at a good average of 31.57 with 1 Test hundred to his name. In the ODI format he played 120 ODI Matches and he scored 1544 runs and got 173 wickets. So, let’s see the Top 5 Best Irfan Pathan performances.
102 vs Pakistan (2007)
The only test century he ever scored was definitely one of his best performances because scoring a test hundred is one of the hardest things. This match vs Pakistan at Bangalore was one where the batters were having a ball batting on a flat deck and Irfan Pathan was no different. He absolutely took the Pakistan bowlers to all parts and hit 10 fours and 4 sixes meaning a total of 64 runs in boundaries and he did this in only 133 balls. This will be an innings that will always be very special to him.
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93 vs Sri Lanka (2005)
Even though he got his only test hundred vs Pakistan but this innings of 93 that he played vs Sri Lanka was his best match winning test innings he played for India as the match was in the balance after both the first innings batting of the teams and India needed a good second innings score and Irfan Pathan cane in at the top of the order and just started hitting the ball to the boundary and he scored 93 runs from 143 balls with 10 fours and 1 sixes and India won the match by 188 runs and this amazing innings by Irfan Pathan was the catalyst to the win.
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5/45 vs Bangladesh (2004)
This was the early stages in the career of Irfan Pathan and to get a 5 wicket haul in a test innings and to be the one who led the win for India in this test match vs Bangladesh is a special feeling. Bangladesh were batting first in this test match and Irfan Pathan got 3 out of the first 4 Wickets to fall in that innings and from there the Bangladesh Innings never took off and they were Bowled out for 184 in the first innings with Irfan picking up 5 wickets in the innings and in the end India win that test match by an innings and 140 runs.
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5/58 vs Zimbabwe (2005)
The fourth performance that we will be talking about in this article is the 5 wicket haul he took against Zimbabwe in 2005. This was a purple patch in the career of Irfan Pathan and Zimbabwe bore the brunt of it. Zimbabwe were batting first in this match and Pathan took early wickets and Zimbabwe even with some partnerships later in the innings could only get 279 in the first innings and Irfan again took a 5 wicket haul in this innings and only giving away 58 runs.
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5/61 vs Sri Lanka (2012)
This was the last bowling innings in ODIs for Irfan Pathan and what a way to go out bu picking up 6 wickets in the innings and winning India the match. Batting first in this match India scored a good total of 294 runs and Sri Lanka played well but the constant picking up Wickets by Irfan meant that Sri Lanka fell short nu just 20 runs and Irfan Pathan got a win and the man of the match in his final ODI match.
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