By BIPIN DANI
In the opening match of the series against the West Indies (at Sir Vivian Richards Stadium, Antigua), Nida Dar became the first bowler, male or female, to take 100 wickets in the shortest format of the game for Pakistan on Wednesday.
She is Asia's first and world's 5th woman cricketer to achieve this feat.
The other four women bowlers to have crossed the 100-wicket mark in the format are West Indie's Anisa Mohammed (120), Australia's Ellyse Perry (115), South Africa's Shabnum Ismail (110) and England's Anya Shrubsole (102). From the Asian teams, India’s Poonam Yadav, with 95 wickets is closest to her.
"That's a tremendous achievement and we as a family and myself particularly are jubilant since I being a sportsman and film writer myself always gave confidence in her abilities", her brother, Hammad Hassan, speaking exclusively over the telephone from Gujranwala, said on Thursday.
Among cricketing circles, she is known as Little Boom Boom. The original nickname is attached with Shahid Afridi.
"Nida is a big hitter and she proved herself being the biggest hitter and somehow caught Shahid Afridi's style and therefore being called the little boom boom".
Interestingly, her father, Rashid Hassan, who is admitted in the hospital now, was also a First-Class cricketer before being a teacher.
"Our father is bed ridden. He survived covid but now has an obstruction in colon. He was hospitalized after Nida reached Caribbean island. My sister wanted to quit the series and return home. We persuaded her to play there for the country. She is very close to our father and my dad also wanted her to achieve 100 wickets", the brother added.
"Unfortunately, we just had glimpses of the match since our uncle died yesterday in another city and our father is in the hospital, but yeah we knew she would do it, anxious we were all but I was confident and she did it".
"We are from a well-known family of Pakistan. Our father's first cousin K. H Khurshid was secretary to Jinnah and remained president of Azad Kashmir back in 1956", the brother concluded.
