London, June 12 (IANS) Ahead of day two’s play in the ICC World Test Championship (WTC) final between Australia and South Africa at Lord’s, former Pakistan captain Sana Mir had the honour to ring the historic bell, a moment which she described as ‘means the world to me’.

“Lord’s has so much history. It’s the home of cricket and being here in this special time, getting the Hall of Fame and then this Test match final, I’m so honoured to be here and being part of all these historical rituals at Lord’s, historical traditions, it means the world to me,” said Sana in a video on ICC’s Instagram account on Thursday.

Asked what was on her mind before going to ring the bell at Lord’s, Sana stated, “I mean I knew that ringing the Lord’s bell is only once in a lifetime opportunity. So I made sure I get all the instructions and the instructions were to ring it five times. That makes sense because my shirt number was five, so I don’t know, I’ll have to see the replay.”

Before the 2025 WTC final between reigning champions Australia and first-time finalists South Africa began on Wednesday, Sana had been inducted into the ICC Hall of Fame in a glittering ceremony held at the iconic Abbey Road Studios in London. Apart from her, Hashim Amla, Mahendra Singh Dhoni, Matthew Hayden, Graeme Smith, Sarah Taylor and Daniel Vettori were also inducted into the ICC Hall of Fame.

Sana had become Pakistan’s captain at 23 and led them for seven years, including winning two Asian Games gold medals in 2010 and 2014. In her 15-year international career, she retired as her country’s leading wicket-taker in ODI cricket – 151 wickets at an average of 24.27 in 120 matches.

She also ended up as the second-highest wicket-taker for Pakistan in women’s T20I cricket – 89 wickets at an average of 23.42 in 89 games. She also amassed 1,630 runs at an average of 17.91 in ODIs and 802 runs at an average of 14.07 in T20Is.

Having started as a pace bowler, a stress fracture forced Sana to switch to off-spin. In October 2018 she became the first Pakistani woman to reach the summit of the ICC rankings when she was ranked at the top of the women’s ODI bowlers table.

–IANS

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