Each
year you see new records being made and broken but this year
was entirely different. This year, one man single-handedly
broke the records that came in his path. Mohammed Yousuf started
the year off with a 199-ball 173 against India at Lahore,
and since then he hasn't looked back, finishing with an aggregate
of 1788 runs, beating Sir Viv Richards' 1710-run record of
most runs in a calendar year by 78 runs.
After starting off with a hundred at Lahore against India,
he followed it with another hundred at Faisalabad, and narrowly
missed a hat-trick of hundreds after he got out for 97 at
Karachi. From there on he went on to England for a four-match
test series and then caned West Indies at home, continuing
his run fest. In all, the scored 9 hundreds this year –
a record for most centuries in a calendar year.
Yousuf ended the year in fitting style against West Indies
with 102 and 124 at Karachi, becoming only the sixth Pakistan
batsman to score a hundred in each innings of a Test. He joined
Hanif Mohammad, Javed Miandad, Wajahatullah Wasti, Yasir Hameed
and Inzamam-ul-Haq in record books.
Yousuf scored plenty of runs in all the series he played in
this year, but he saved his best for last - a series aggregate
of 665 made him the highest scorer in a three-test series
for Pakistan and the third-highest scorer in a three-test
series, behind Graham Gooch and Brian Lara.
| Most
runs in a 3-test series |
| Batsman |
Team |
Vs |
Runs |
Avrg. |
100s |
50s |
Season |
| Graham Gooch |
England |
India |
752 |
125.3 |
3 |
2 |
1990 |
| Brian Lara |
West Indies |
Sri Lanka |
688 |
114.7 |
3 |
1 |
2001-02 |
| Mohammad Yousuf |
Pakistan |
West Indies |
665 |
133.0 |
4 |
1 |
2006-07 |
| Brian Lara |
Pakistan |
India |
583 |
194.3 |
2 |
1 |
1978-79 |
Though
this was only a three-test series, Yousuf still made enough
runs to be among the top run-scorers for Pakistan in any series.
Through the course of this innings, he fell short of Mudassar
Nazar's aggregate of 761 in six Tests against India in 1982-83.
Mohammed Yousuf’s figures are twice in the top four
series aggregates for Pakistan, with both those performances
coming in back-to-back performances this year.
| Most
runs in a test series for Pakistan |
| Batsman |
Vs |
Tests |
Runs |
Avrg. |
Season |
| Mudassar Nazar |
India |
6 |
761 |
126.8 |
1982-83 |
| Mohammad Yousuf |
West Indies |
3 |
665 |
133.0 |
2006-07 |
| Zaheer Abbas |
India |
6 |
650 |
130.0 |
1982-83 |
| Mohammad Yousuf |
England |
4 |
631 |
90.1 |
2006 |
This
shows how well Yousuf has performed this year and is going
into the next with South Africa to face and the World Cup
by the corner. If he goes on performing this well even in
the next year, Pakistan can feel secure and sit back to enjoy
the wins over South Africa!
|
Mohammad Yousuf acknowledges the crowd after reaching double-century
at Lord's
Younis congratulates
Yousuf on scoring his 18th test hundred during the Headingley
test
Yousuf continued to work around England bowling in the controversial
Oval Test
|
