A left-arm fast-bowling legend who left a mark on Indian cricket with an unparalleled ability to outwit the batters with his swing. Yes, we are talking about Zaheer Khan. The World Cup winner had an illustrious career for India in all the formats but he reached the cricket summit when India won the ODI World Cup in 2011. In this article, we will take a look at the top 3 performances from Zaheer Khan in his ODI career.
Top 3 performances from Zaheer Khan in his ODI career:
1. 5/42 vs Sri Lanka, 2007
This was the only 5-wicket haul for Zaheer Khan in ODI cricket and it came against a formidable Sri Lankan batting lineup. Sri Lanka batted first in the third match of the ODI series between the two sides and Zaheer made it tough for Sri Lanka to post a challenging target for India. Sri Lanka got off to a horrible start as Zaheer picked up three crucial wickets in the first five overs of the match which put the Lankans under huge pressure. He picked up the other two wickets in the later part of the first innings and restricted Sri Lanka to 230 runs in the first innings.
2. 4/19 vs Bangladesh, 2003
Zaheer Khan loved bowling against Bangladesh in every format of the game. Just like his test exploits, his ODI performances against Bangladesh are also commendable. He bowled this spell in the first match of the TVS Cup at Dhaka. Zaheer crippled the Bangladesh batting order which was trying to chase a huge target of 277 runs. Bangladesh could only add 76 runs on the board in the run chase and big credit for the batting disaster goes to Zaheer Khan.
3. 4/21 vs Sri Lanka, 2008
Another fantastic display with the ball against an Asian opponent. The Indian team was on the tour to Sri Lanka in 2008 and Zaheer Khan emerged as the matchwinner in the second game of the ODI series at Dambulla. He picked up all his four wickets with the new ball in his first spell to reduce the Sri Lankan team to 5/33. His superb bowling performance could not let Sri Lanka gain any momentum in the match and in the end, crumbled under pressure. Zaheer won the Player of the Match award for his masterclass with the ball.
Also read: Andrew Flintoff’s top 3 performances in ODI Cricket