I’ll always cherish Sachin’s wicket: Aamer

Karachi: When playing against India, bagging the wicket of Sachin Tendulkar is an enormous boost and a moment to cherish for any young bowler, and 17-year old Pakistan rookie fast bowler Mohammad Aamer is no exception.

Aamer, who has impressed everyone with his performance since his debut in the Twenty20 World Cup in England had scalped the prized wicket of the master batsman in the group league match of the Champions Trophy in South Africa in September.

Talking about the moment in the match that Pakistan won by 54 runs, Aamer said, "That was indeed a big wicket for me and I will always cherish that moment (when I dismissed him),"

Aamer has now started showing all signs of emerging as a genuine all-rounder for Pakistan, with his rollicking innings of 73 off 81 balls in the third ODI against New Zealand.

"After that 73 against New Zealand, I realised how much people follow your performances and now I know that I just need to work harder on my batting as well," Aamer said in an interview.

Aamer is still in his early days in international cricket and wants to take it match by match rather than burdening himself with targets and goals.

"I am not an ambitious person in the sense I don't set goals of taking 100 or 400 wickets. I play my cricket for the moment and match to match. Because form is not always the same," Aamer said.

Aamer conceded he was inspired by former fast bowling great Wasim Akram but others like Mudassar Nazar, who was his coach at the National Cricket Academy in Lahore, had also helped him much.

The left-arm pacer also praised Younis Khan, who was recently replaced by Mohammad Yousuf as Pakistan skipper for the upcoming tour of New Zealand, for supporting him.

"When Younis Khan was captain he encouraged me a lot and told me not to take pressure and play every match as if I was playing a domestic match. Such encouragement is great boost to any young bowler because when you get hit for a boundary the pressure grows on you. Younis was always very supportive," he said.

On the record last wicket stand of 103 against the Kiwis that he shared with Saeed Ajmal, Aamer said, "We never had planned the partnership, we were just taking it over by over but once we got to around 150 we knew victory was possible.

"We then played more carefully. I think (Daniel) Vettori was trying to buy my wicket and I thought he is giving flight to the ball to take a chance and I hit him for three sixes. But he is a world class bowler."