A memorable knock of 134 against Sri Lanka:

Zaheer 66 not out on Wednesday!

By A.C. De Silva

In Pakistan there was a fine cricketer who could have been compared with the best in the world. He is Zaheer Abbas who will celebrate his 66th birthday on Wednesday, 24th July, 2013.

The bespectacled Syed Zaheer Abbas is no stranger to Sri Lanka, having toured here in 1976 and 1979. His last Test innings was also against Sri Lanka in the 1985/1986 series where he failed to make it big in the two Tests. He managed to score only 4 runs in the two innings he played and it was the last series of his Test career.

However, in the 1985-86 series Zaheer Abbas scored a fine 134 against Sri Lanka in the one-off Test played in Pakistan.

He began his Test career in fine style with an outstanding innings of concentrated stroke-play scoring 274 in only his second Test match against England in 1971 in that series. He aggregated 386 runs in 3 Tests with an average of 96.50.He settled in Gloucestershire in County Cricket, in 1976 he outstripped all other batsmen in English domestic cricket. He compiled 2,554 runs in just 39 innings (Av. 75.11). He gathered 11 centuries plus 3 more in one-day cricket. He has made a century in each innings of a match on eight occasions - a record. More remarkable is that four of these 16 centuries were double centuries and in no fewer than 12 of the innings he was undefeated.

Zaheer has scored more than 100 first class centuries and typically his 100th century was a double century - 215 against India at Lahore.

His 16-year-old Test career brought him 5,062 runs with 12 centuries in 78 Tests, averaging 44.79.

He is the first Asian player to reach 100 centuries and holds the world record of eight times hitting a hundred in each innings of a game.

Zeheer, incidentally, led his side in early 1984 to their first home series win over England.

In his Test career he scored 5,062 runs in 78 Tests for a batting average of 44.79 with 12 hundreds and 20 half-centuries with that top score of 274. In One-Day Internationals where he played 62 matches, he made 2,572 runs with seven centuries and 13 half-centuries. His top score in One-Day Internationals was 123.