Pakistan batting: falling with unity!

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Pakistan: unpredictably unpredictable!

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Bazid completes the set!

On May 26, by playing the first Test against West Indies at Bridgetown Barbados, Pakistan's Bazid Khan provided only the second instance of three generations of the same family playing Test cricket. The famous Headley’s have the distinction of completing the first set. George Headley, the first truly world-class West Indian batsman, played 22 Tests for the West Indies between 1930 and 1954. He smashed six Test centuries before his 22nd birthday – a feat that stood for 63 years until it was broken by Sachin Tendulkar in 1994. He was rated by some to be better than even the Don. The great leg-spinner Clarrie Grimmett, who had bowled to Bradman, Hobbs and Headley, rated Headley the greatest on-side player he had come across. Sir Neville Cardus one of finest authorities on the game, rated him the greatest player on all wickets in the period between the two wars. The `Atlas`, as CB Fry called him, never failed in a single Test series during a 22-Test career that saw him amass 2,190 runs at 60.83. After George it was the turn of his son Ron - an elegant left-hander - to keep alive the Headleys name. Though never in George's class, Ron, who played his cricket in England, proved a more than useful county cricketer, playing a part in Worcestershire winning the county championship on three occasions. He also played two Tests and a single ODI for West Indies in 1973. Ron’s son Dean Headley, a decent seamer and a useful all-rounder, featured in 15 Tests and 13 one-day games for England between 1996 and 1999. A troubling back injury forced him into early retirement.

Bazid's father, Majid Khan played 63 Tests and 23 one-day internationals, between 1964 and 1983. Started his career as a pace bowler, Majid proved his prowess with such a grace and effortless batting that he was called ‘the Majestic Majid’. Majid’s father Dr. Mohammad Jahangir Khan, played four Test matches for India in the 1930s and, after Partition, made an important contribution as a player, administrator and selector to the development of cricket in Pakistan. He is also famous for killing a sparrow in flight while playing for Cambridge against MCC at Lord's in 1936. Interestingly, two other members of the same Khan family also played for Pakistan - Javed Burki and Imran Khan – both are nephews of Jahangir and cousins of Majid.

Bazid’s selection in the ongoing Bridgetown Test also created another record. He and his father (Majid) became only the fifth father-son pair to feature in both forms of cricket (Test & ODI’s), the others being England's Colin Cowdrey and Chris Cowdrey, New Zealand's Lance and Chris Cairns, India's Yograj and Yuvraj Singh and West Indies' Ron Headley and his son Dean Headley who played for England. Of these five father-son pairs, only four have played for the same country in both forms of the game.

Top-order batting heroics in ODI’s

On May 22, during the third match of the ODI series at St. Lucia, Pakistan’s top five batsmen made score of 40 or more. This provided only the third such instance in ODI history. The other two instances were recorded at Dhaka on April 14, 2003 by South African against Bangladesh and on April 12, 2005 at Ahmedabad by Pakistan against India. Interestingly, it was also the seventh such instance in limited-overs cricket when any five players of a side registered scores of atleast 40 runs or more in a match. Curiously enough, it was for the fourth time that five Pakistan players have performed such feat. For reader’s interest the accompanying table has the complete details.Click to see the table

Pakistan seals a rare series triumph

On May 22, by winning the third ODI at St. Lucia Pakistan sealed a rare ‘away’ series victory of their limited-overs international history. It was for the first time that Pakistan have won a bilateral ODI series in West Indies. Pakistan thus became only the second side after South Africa to win all the matches of an ODI (bilateral) rubber played in West Indies. Interestingly, South Africa did so just prior to the start of recent Pakistan-West Indies series when they trounced West Indies by 5-0 scoreline. Now only Australia, Sri Lanka and South Africa remain the only major ODI sides without having a home ODI series whitewash. For reader’s interest the accompanying table has the complete details.Click to see the table

Crictoon of the day - Running without axe!

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Crictoon of the day - Inzi misses!

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Kabhi Hum Be Thay Team Mein...

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When Qadir won Pakistan a thriller!

An eyewitness account of a classic Pakistan v West Indies encounter during 1987 World Cup at Qaddafi Stadium, Lahore on October 16th

Dr. Naveed Yazdani

When I along with my wife entered the great Qaddafi Stadium on that bright and sunny day of October, my heart was sad and heavy. Not to do anything with Cricket but with the sad demise of one of the greatest voices of sub-continent, Kishore Kumar. But once the game began my thoughts started to focus on cricket.

It was a crunch game for the West Indians as they had just lost a nail biter against England at Gujranwala a couple of days back. So it was quite natural for Viv Richards to win the toss and opt for batting first. Desmond Haynes was no stranger to us but little did we know about a slim but well built debutant opener Phil Simmons. And it was Simmons who started to take our bowlers on. A score of 90 plus without losing any wicket was quite ominous and we were beginning to get worried when Tauseef Ahmed struck out of nowhere to remove Simmons for a well played 50. Desmond Haynes was getting frustrated against Saleem Jaffar and could not resist coming down the track and was bowled. Richie Richardson soon top edged Jaffar to be held safely by Ijaz Ahmed and Logie also perished without doing much and we were right back in the game with those four quick wickets.

This was a crucial time in the game as “King� Richards walked out to bat. The Lahore crowd had a strange relationship with Viv; they wanted him to score but not many. And when he flicked Tauseef effortlessly for a huge six over mid wicket, Imran was smart enough to read the script and decided to bring himself back. The second ball of the over was an innocuous full toss which was hit so hard by Viv that I lost the ball completely and thought that I had seen the flattest six of my life, but then I realized that everyone was rushing to Saleem Malik to celebrate the dismissal of Viv. Saleem had held on to a blinder and Imran soon brought the jam packed Qaddafi stadium to its feet by removing Roger Harper on the very next delivery. West Indies could not capitalize on a good start and were all out for 216.

A target of 217 was not huge but a teasing one and Pakistan had a shaky start. Mansoor Akhtar, on whom Imran had so much confidence failed yet another time when his stumps were shattered by Pat Patterson but the crowd became dead silent when the in-form Malik fell cheaply to make Pakistan 2 down for 28. A slow and painstaking partnership between Javed and Rameez was cut short when Viv had Rameez caught brilliantly at wide mid on. Viv dived full length to his left to hold a scorcher of a shot from Rameez just inches from the ground. Our hopes of winning the game were really dented when Hooper had Javed caught and bowled. But then came a match turning partnership between Imran and Saleem Yousaf, the gutsy keeper hitting 7 boundaries and brought Pakistan within a striking distance when the game tilted again in favor of West Indies and Pakistan lost 3 quick wickets and entered the last over at 203 for 9. They still had to get 14 runs from the last over with one wicket in hand and only Abdul Qadir left to face the music.

I will always remember this last over bowled by a young Courtney Walsh for two reasons. One of them obviously brought us to our feet when Qadir, against all odds, went inside out to hit Walsh for a huge six over long off. And the other was an extreme act of sportsmanship from Walsh when he only warned the non striker batsman Saleem Jaffar and did not dislodge the bails otherwise it would have been all over for Pakistan. That gesture won our hearts but we burst into an absolute gleeful dance when Qadir steered the penultimate delivery of the match through point to give Pakistan a sensational 1 wicket win. Hats off to Qadir for not losing his cool and collecting 14 runs from the last over. As soon as the winning runs were hit, Viv could not hide his disappointment and lay motionless on the field for quite sometime while Lahoris were basking in the glory of that great victory, the memory of which has never failed to get me excited even today some 18 years later!

Dr. Naveed Yazdani (annyazdani@hotmail.com) is a freelance Cricket writer and analyst.

Most 100s in a Test match

The recently concluded fourth Test between South Africa and West Indies at St. John’s Antigua turned out to be a great batting feast. Eight individual centuries were scored by eight different batsmen. It thus broke the world record of most number of individual hundreds scored in a Test match. There have been three previous occasions when seven 100’s were scored in a match. The last such instance was also recorded by these two sides at Cape Town in 2003-04. West Indies now lists in three of the first four instances. For readers interest the accompanying table has the complete details.Click to see the table

Wicketkeepers taking a Test wicket

On the fifth day of the recently concluded fourth Test against South Africa at St. John’s Antigua, South African wicketkeeper Mark Boucher took off pads to bowl some overs for his side. By taking the wicket of Dwayne Bravo, Boucher thus provided only the 13th instance in Test annals when an officially named keeper for a Test took a wicket in the same match. He also became the ninth keeper in Test cricket’s history to take a Test wicket. For reader’s interest the accompanying table has the complete details.Click to see the table

Gayle bats and bats and bats!

Chris Gayle became the fourth West Indian and 18th player in Test history to score a triple century when he amassed 317 on the fourth day of the fourth Test against South Africa at St. Johns Antigua. His mammoth innings was studded with 37 fours and three sixes. Gayle also became the first player to record a triple ton against South Africa. The previous best against them was Don Bradman’s magnificent 299* at Adelaide in 1931-32.

England's Andrew Sandham was the first man on the planet to reach 300-mark in Test annals. Australia's Don Bradman and West Indian Brian Lara are the only two batsmen in Test cricket to score two triple centuries. Antigua Recreation Ground has now joined Headingley, Leeds as the only venues in the world to witness three individual triple century scores. For readers interest the accompanying table has the complete details.Click to see the table

Pak in WI: A tough competition is on the cards

Dr. Naveed Yazdani

Pakistan and West Indies will face each other for three ODI and two Test matches in the coming weeks. Pakistan is basking in the glory of victories against India while West Indies are struggling against the South Africans in Test matches. Nothing can be predicted with certainty but the recent performance of both the sides might establish a trend from where one can perhaps try to project the outcomes.

We will compare the two sides separately for Test and ODIs. For the sake of keeping the focus on recent form and validity, I have considered last 15 Tests and 10 ODIs played by both the sides. Let’s look at their performance under the two versions of the game separately.

Test Matches

Pakistan emerges as clear favorites in this version of the game. The last 15 Tests played by Pakistan are summarized in the Table 1. The same analysis for West Indies is given in Table 2.

Pakistan with an overall win percentage of 33% have performed much better than the West Indian (with a meager win% of 6.67), especially after considering the fact that the sole West Indian Test victory in recent times was against Bangladesh at home!

ODIs

Things are quite close and tighter when it comes to ODIs. West Indies seem to enjoy the benefit of winning a major tournament (ICC Champions Trophy) whereas Pakistan’s moral will be sky high after their 4-2 drubbing of the Indians in India. The performance of these two sides in their last 10 matches is summarized in Table 3:

Pakistan with a better win percentage and better NR/o (Net Runs per Over) has performed marginally better than the West Indians and one can expect a much closer ODI series as compared the Test matches. So watch out for the ODIs, in Tests Pakistan might prove too strong for the West Indies.

Table 1
Pakistan
At Home    Won Lost Drawn Win %
7          3   3    1     42.85
Overseas
8          2   4    2     25.00
Overall
15         5   7    3     33.33

Table 2
West Indies
At Home    Won Lost Drawn Win %
8          1   4    3     12.5
Overseas
7          0   6    1     -
Overall
15         1   10   4     6.67

Table 3
Pakistan
Mt  Won Lost NR  Win% R/o for  R/o against  NR/o
10  6   4    0   60   5.51     5.17         +0.34

West Indies                            
Mt  Won Lost NR  Win% R/o for  R/o against  NR/o
10  5   4    1   50   5.04     4.8          +0.24

Dr. Naveed Yazdani (annyazdani@hotmail.com) is a
freelance Cricket writer and analyst.

Most wickets in a bilateral ODI series

During the recently concluded ODI series against India, Pakistan’s Naved-ul-Hasan grabbed 15 wickets in six games, which is infact the joint third best performance by any bowler in a bilateral ODI series. India’s Javagal Srinath holds the world record in this regard with 17 wickets in seven matches against New Zealand in 2002-03 season. Just for record, Naved’s performance is also the best by any Pakistani bowler in any bilateral series surpassing the previous best of 11 wickets by Waqar Younis in 1990-91 against New Zealand in Pakistan. For reader’s interest the accompanying tables have the complete details.Click to see the table

Pakistan give India a resound bashing to take series 4-2

Great allround display by the Pakistan side in the sixth and final one-dayer today at Feroz Shah Kotla Ground, New Delhi earned them a fabulous series win by 4-2 scoreline. It provided only the first instance in the annals of Limited-overs cricket when a side won a six-match series after losing the first two games. In a five–match series there have also been two such instances - South Africa (3-2) against Pakistan in Pakistan in October 2003 and Bangladesh against Zimbabwe in Bangladesh (3-2) earlier this year.

Pakistan's Yousuf Youhana famous for his fascination with run-outs became a victim of a dubious decision by third-umpire, K Hariharan much to the delight of his country and his own. Now perhaps Pakistan will ask ICC for neutral third umpires! Later, Hariharan was joined by his on-field mate AV Jayaprakash who perhaps trusted his ears more than his eyes when he gave a miles a away missed delivery by Inzamam as a caught behind. Ironically, those two biased decisions were not much savoured by India. Youhana brilliantly executed two stunning run-outs of Rahul Dravid and Yuvraj Singh as Pakistan bowlers joined by spirited fielders ran through the Indian batting line-up giving them a resound bashing by 159 runs.Click to see the series averages

Afridi fuses India

It was murder at Modi Stadium Kanpur. The executioner was Pakistan’s Shahid Afridi and sufferers were Indian bowlers and the Indian fans. Never has such a brutality on a cricket patch been witnessed in India and against India. The one innings which can be ranked alongside Afridi’s today’s blitz is Ijaz Ahmed’s unforgettable butchering of Indian bowlers on the night of October 2, 1997 at Qaddafi Stadium, Lahore. Ijaz made a mockery of opposition clubbing every other Indian bowler for sixes and fours in his stunning unconquered knock of 139 off 84 balls.

But Afridi’s savage assault today, remains to be seen to be believed. There were no mishits, edges or playing and missing. Simply it was controlled stroke making against a good bowling attack. And all the strokes were played with a straight bat clearing the fence by quite a distance. Almost 92 percent of Afridi’s 102 runs came in boundaries. His monstrous hit off Zaheer Khan (his sixth six) towards midwicket made him the first man on the planet to blow 200 hits over the boundary in ODIs. The manner in which he maltreated the Indian bowlers, he is liable to be reported to the Human Rights Commission for violating the rights of Balaji, Zaheer, Kumble, Mongia and Harbhajan. There was one chance for India to come back into this match after his mind-boggling smashing and that infact was no chance. Such an innings will perhaps remain etched forever in the memories of those who have witnessed. Well done Afridi!

Players with 100 or more sixes in ODI’s [10]
Six hitters     For    Mt    Inn    6s    6s/Inn
Shahid Afridi   Pak    204    195    203    1.04
ST Jayasuriya   SL     334    325    188    0.57
SC Ganguly      Ind    271    262    168    0.64
CL Cairns       NZ     204    184    147    0.79
SR Tendulkar    Ind    347    338    144    0.43
Inzamam-ul-Haq  Pak    341    317    133    0.42
IVA Richards    WI     187    167    126    0.75
Wasim Akram     Pak    356    280    121    0.43
BC Lara         WI     251    244    110    0.45
PA de Silva     SL     308    296    102    0.34

Fastest ODI innings

On April 15, during the fifth match of the six-match ODI series against India at Kanpur, Pakistan’s Shahid Afridi hammered a marvelous 102 off just 46 balls with a phenomenal strike rate of 221.73 runs (per 100 balls). It thus provided the 28th instance in the shorter version of the game, when a single batsman scored 50 or more runs with a strike rate of atleast 200 runs per 100 balls. It was also the fifth time that Afridi has done so in an ODI match. For reader’s interest the accompanying table has the complete details.Click to see the Table

A new high for Pakistan

Pakistan successfully chased India’s total of 315, in the fourth game of the six-match ODI series at Ahmedabad. It was actually Pakistan’s best successful run chase in all ODI’s and only the joint fifth best by any team in the shorter version of the game. It was also only for the 12th time that a side has successfully chased a total or 300 runs or more in a match. For reader’s interest the accompanying tables have the complete details. Click to see the Table

Inzamam gives the kiss of life!

On April 12, in the fourth match of the one-day series between India and Pakistan at Sardar Patel Stadium, Ahmedabad, Inzamam-ul-Haq pierced a glorious boundary past point off the last ball of the day by Sachin Tendulkar, to register a sensational three wicket win for his side. Inzamam became only the 10th batsman for the 11th time to score a winning hit off the last ball of an ODI match. Lance Klusener still remains as the only batsman to perform such feat twice. Curiously enough, almost to the day 19 years ago (on April 18, 1986) Javed Miandad smashed Chetan Sharma a stunning six off the final ball of the match to take Pakistan to its first ever ODI title triumph. Ahmedabad game was also the 23rd instance of a side winning a one-day international off the last ball of the match. For reader’s interest the accompanying tables have the complete details.Click to see the Tables

Inzamam’s dubious distinction

On April 5, during the second match of the six-match ODI series against India at Visakhapatnam, Pakistan’s Inzamam-ul-Haq equalled a dubious world record of one-day cricket history. By getting himself run-out for the 38th time in his ODI career, the Pakistan captain equalled the tally of his former teammate Wasim Akram to become the poorest runner between the wickets in the shorter version of the game. Curiously enough, Inzamam has also ran his partners out no less than 30 times in ODI’s. This gives him a total of 68 run-outs, out of the 633 partnerships he had with different players in his 338 match career. Interestingly, Australian Steve Waugh and Sri Lankan Arjuna Ranatunga precede Inzamam in terms of most run-outs in partnerships. Another current Pakistani batsman Yousuf Youhana who has a uncanny knack of running himself or his partners out every now and then is already part of this dubious list with 56 total run-outs and counting! For reader’s interest the accompanying tables have the complete details.Click to see the Tables