Nasir Jamshed on the footprints of Saeed Anwar

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The brightest aspect of the historic victory of Pakistan in India was the brilliant performance by young batsman Nasir Jamshed, who has played a pivotal role in Pakistan’s win in the first two one-day international matches. He has scored centuries in both matches and is now eyeing a world record—scoring centuries in three consecutive one-day matches, a record held by Saeed Anwar, Asian Bradman Zaheer Abbas, South Africa’s Herschelle Gibbs and the present captain AB de Villiers. However, no batsman has yet made four successive centuries.

[caption id="attachment_164" align="alignright" width="300"] Nasir Jamshed can become third Pakistani batsman to score three consecutive hundreds (Photo: BCCI)[/caption]

Now, all eyes are on Jamshed whether he could make his place in this list at Feroz Shah Kotla stadium.

In Chennai, Jamshed played an unbeatable innings of 101 runs, playing a key role in Pakistan’s win over India. But, unfortunately, he wasn’t given the man-of-the-match award. However in the next match in Kolkata, his 106-run knock helped Pakistan seal victory and earn him the award.

This was his third consecutive century against India in ODIs. He had made a century against India in a group match of Asia Cup last year. Though Pakistan couldn’t win the match because of Virat Kohli’s deadly 183-run inning, Jamshed proved that his bat is prolific against the archrivals.

Now, if Nasir succeeds in playing a three-digit inning in Feroz Shah Kotla, this would be the fifth time in history that a batsman scores three back-to-back centuries in ODIs.

In the history of one-day cricket, the record of making three continuous centuries was first made by Zaheer Abbas in 1982-83, when he made three centuries against the traditional rival India in the one-day matches held at Multan, Lahore and Karachi. In the Multan one-day, which was the second match of the series, Pakistan got victory due to Abbas’ brilliant innings of 118 runs. He made 105 runs in the next match but India won the match by 18 runs. In the fourth match of the series at the National Stadium of Karachi, Abbas played a stormy innings of 113 off 99 balls, including 11 fours and three sixes. Pakistan won the match by eight wickets as a result and the series by 3-1.

Asian Bradman held the record for around a decade until 1993 when Saaed Anwar hit three back-to-back centuries in Sharjah.

In the Pepsi Champions Trophy played in October-November 1993 in Sharja, Anwar scored 107 against Sri Lanka, 131 against West Indies and 111 against Sri Lanka to get his name included in the record book. In the last match, Pakistan chased a 271-run target in the last over, thanks to Anwar, whose both innings proved fruitful.

In September-October 2002, Gibbs scored three centuries against Kenya, India and Bangladesh and in 2010, AB de Villiers scored two hundreds against India and one against West Indies to places their names in the list.

If Nasir makes a century in New Delhi, his name would also shine in the list and this would be the first time in cricket history that Pakistan whitewash their archrivals.

Batsmen who scored three consecutive centuries in ODIs

Player	Country	Runs	vs	Ground	Date
Zaheer Abbas		118		Multan	December 17, 1982
		105		Lahore	December 31, 1982
		113		Karachi	January 21, 1983
Saeed Anwar		107		Sharjah	October 30, 1993
		131		Sharjah	November 1, 1993
		111		Sharjah	November 2, 1993
Herschelle Gibbs		116		Colombo	September 20, 2002
		116*		Colombo	September 25, 2002
		153		Potchefstroom	October 3, 2002
AB de Villiers		114*		Gwalior	February 24, 2010
		112*		Ahmedabad	February 27, 2010
		102		North Sound	May 22, 2010