Imran and Inzamam: On top of the world in 1992

That destiny seemed no more than a pipe dream when Pakistan still needed 123 runs from 15 overs to beat New Zealand.

Enter Inzamam to blast 60 from 37 balls, with seven fours and a six, to win the match with an over to spare.

Again, in the final against England, Pakistan were faltering before Inzamam injected some purpose with 42 not out off 35 balls to carry the total to match-winning proportions.

It was typical Inzamam - hunched over his bat, with droopy eyes turned reluctantly towards the bowler, before lashing out fearlessly at an unsuspecting opponent.

Known as a good-natured, gentle giant who likes to laze on his hotel bed whenever he is away from home, he once waded into the crowd during a "friendly" one-day international in Toronto, bat cocked behind his head, chasing down a megaphone-touting heckler.

"I was calling him a potato in Punjabi because he is a little fat," said the heckler after being ushered to safety.

Inzamam shares a joke with his teammates

Inzamam is clearly no fool. The resulting two-match ban was a price well worth paying.

Likewise, it would be wrong to dismiss Inzamam as someone who has been granted undeserved opportunities to rise to the top on the basis of his reluctance to participate in team training sessions.

Born and brought up in Multan, a provincial town of few luxuries, he grew up playing what passed for cricket on a stretch of grassless parkland.

His sleepy demeanour also belies experiences of sub-continental combustibility - in the cavalcade that greeted his return to Multan after the 1991-2 World Cup, his brother had two fingers blow off by a celebratory firecracker.

From humble beginnings, Inzamam became, according to Imran, the equal of Viv Richards at the same age (24), and is now the scorer of 12 Test hundreds and almost 5,000 Test runs at an average of over 46.

The latest of those hundreds, against England in Karachi, saw him become the heaviest run-scorer in Test cricket in the year 2000, surpassing Andy Flower, Michael Atherton and his team-mate, Yousuf Youhana.

Everything about Inzamam's career could be seen in that innings.

Graham Thorpe is forced to take evasive action

He needed a slice of luck to make it into double figures.

But those who complain that he was fortunate to survive an lbw shout that looked plumb in front should remember that Mark Taylor looked just as plumb on nought when he scored 334 not out in Peshawar and Mr Unlucky himself, Nasser Hussain, was ruled not out when a huge snick went undetected by the umpire at an early stage of his maiden Test century against India.

Slowly, but very surely, Inzamam's footwork became more confident as the pressure on Pakistan eased and he worked his way through the twenties and thirties.

And then for the avalanche - four fours in five balls off Ashley Giles to power to his half-century. He progressed to 99, then blocked the first ball before sending the next racing to the off-side boundary.

Off came the helmet and up went the arms in celebration.

He might be known for having made other children run between the wickets for him when he was at school, and as someone who prefers a snooze to social chit-chat after a day's play, but Inzamam is nothing if not passionate about scoring runs for Pakistan - in an endearingly dozy kind of way, of course.