Inzamam facing knee operation after one-day decider

Karachi, June 18: Pakistan batsman Inzamam-ul-Haq will have knee surgery in Melbourne immediately after the deciding third one-day international against Australia, the Pakistan Cricket Board said on Tuesday.

Pakistan, who face Australia on Wednesday, levelled the series with a two-wicket win in Melbourne on Saturday but Inzamam was limping throughout his innings.

Despite the injury, the 32-year-old middle-order batsman scored 24 to move into fourth place in the list of leading run-makers in one-day internationals. On Monday he was third in the latest PricewaterhouseCoopers test rankings.

Pakistan Cricket Board director Brigadier Munawar Rana confirmed from Karachi that Inzamam had been advised to have an operation to cure a chronic condition.

"The knee has been bothering him for a while now but he has played because of non-stop international commitments. He had a lot of problems with his knee in this series," Rana said.

Last month in Lahore Inzamam made light of the problem to produce a nine-and-a-half-hour, match-winning innings of 329 in the first test of the abandoned two-match series against New Zealand.