17 October 1996
Test Match: Matabele pair lined up
By Geoffrey Dean in Lahore
ZIMBABWE may pick two black fast bowlers for today's first Test against Pakistan at Sheikhupura, Test cricket's newest venue.
Henry Olonga, who made his debut last year in Zimbabwe's maiden victory against Pakistan, may be joined by fellow Matabele, Mpepello Mbangwa, 20.
Zimbabwe will select either Mbangwa or the former Cambridge University off-spinner, Andrew Whittall, after a final inspection of the pitch.
Mbangwa, who has played just four first-class games, has, like Olonga, spent time at Dennis Lillee's fast-bowling academy in Madras. He also has some experience of English conditions.
Despite Dave Houghton's return to the side following Zimbabwe's 2-0 drubbing in Sri Lanka last month, Alistair Campbell continues as captain. The Zimbabwe Board felt that the captaincy would give Houghton too much power after they appointed him player-coach for the next six months.
Pakistan may give a debut to Shahid Afridi, 16, whose 37-ball hundred against Sri Lanka last month was a new international world record. He would play primarily as a leg-spinner in the absence of Mushtaq Ahmed who, like Inzamam-ul-Haq, is injured.
Batsman Azam Khan, 27, wins his first cap. Pakistan will choose between Afridi and Shahid Nazir, who toured England this year. The pitch is expected to become slow and flat.
Pakistan (from): *Wasim Akram, Aamir Sohail, Saeed Anwar, Ijaz Ahmed, Shadab Kabir, Salim Malik, Azam Khan, -Moin Khan, Waqar Younis, Saqlain Mushtaq, Shahid Afridi, Shahid Nazir.
Zimbabwe (from): *A D R Campbell, G W Flower, M H Dekker, D L Houghton, -A Flower, G J Whittall, C Wishart, PA Strang, B C Strang, A R Whittall, H K Olonga, M Mbangwa.
====> REPORT (Day 1)
18 October 1996
Flower exploits absence of swing
By Geoffrey Dean in Sheikhupura, Pakistan
MUCH of the reason for Zimbabwe's startling recovery from 142 for six could be found in Pakistan's failure to obtain any significant reverse swing on the opening day of the first Test at Sheikhupura.
On a low, slow pitch, Grant Flower and Paul Strang profited to graft an unbroken 98 in 41 overs for the seventh wicket, thereby keeping their side in the Test, the first to be held at this small town, an hour's drive from Lahore.
Flower, dropped at the wicket off Wasim Akram when 39, showed what a difficult player he is to get out on his way to an undefeated 98 off 264 balls. England will soon find out about a temperament that is as unflappable as his technique is sound.
Wasim peppered him with short-pitched deliveries, but not once did Flower try to pull or hook him. He scored heavily with some beautifully timed off-drives and used his feet to the spinners to hit them down the ground, once lifting Aamir Sohail over extra-cover for six.
The umpires surprisingly had no replacement used balls and, when Pakistan twice succeeded in getting the ball changed, they had to make do with Zimbabwe's net balls.
Being relatively new, these balls resolutely refused to reverse swing, diminishing the threat posed by Wasim and Waqar Younis, who were already blunted by a flat, dry pitch.
Debutant Shahid Nazir got the most swing, using traditional means, and won three lbws from David Orchard. The off-spinner, Saqlain Mushtaq, had a long bowl, but Flower and Dave Houghton played him particularly well. Houghton drove and swept him for sixes, and looked in prime form before running himself out.
====> REPORT (Day 2)
19 October 1996
Strang's show puts Pakistan under pressure
By Geoffrey Dean in Sheikhupura, Pakistan
VERY few Test cricketers have a day like Paul Strang did yesterday. He scored a maiden hundred of priceless value that ushered Zimbabwe to an unlikely 375, and then took four wickets with quality wrist spin on a very dry, turning pitch. Pakistan will now have to bat and bowl very well to save this first Test.
It was in the last hour that the match completely changed course. Pakistan were looking comfortable at 142 for three when the commanding Saeed Anwar came down the pitch to Strang to hit with the spin on the onside, failed to pick the googly and was smartly stumped. Soon after, Azam Khan was also deceived by the googly and Salim Malik was bowled round his legs, sweeping.
Strang had also removed Aamir Sohail after he had taken apart some ill-directed new ball bowling. He had hit 11 fours in his 46 before top-edging an ill-advised pull.
Shadab Kabir miscued Andy Whittall's off-spin to extra cover and Henry Olonga then got some rare movement off the seam to have Ijaz Ahmed lbw.
The key to Strang's 5.5-hour unbeaten 106 was the ease with which he played the off-spin of Saqlain Mushtaq and the three fast bowlers. Wasim Akram and Waqar Younis were not their usual threat on such a slow, low pitch.
Bryan Strang helped his brother add an important 89 in 18 overs for the ninth wicket. The Pakistani players and an 8,000 crowd grew more and more infuriated during the Strangs' partnership. Bryan said he was constantly sledged but this made him even more determined. He admitted nicking a Waqar delivery but no one appealed.
This summed up Waqar's luck, for he did not bowl as badly as his figures suggest. He had Paul Strang dropped twice - when 45 and 72. Strang had also been missed the day before when 22.
Towards the end of the morning session, due to last 2.5 hours to allow a later lunch, a small section of the crowd started throwing stones at Shahid Nazir on the boundary. Despite taking five wickets on his debut, there was resentment that local hero Aqib Javed was not in the side. The umpires took lunch five minutes early to let tempers cool.
====> REPORT (Day 3)
20 October 1996
Wasim to the rescue with best Test score
By Geoffrey Dean
A DAY of unremitting frustration for Zimbabwe served to underline that they really have only two bowlers of genuine Test class. With Heath Streak recovering at home from a bad groin strain, Paul Strang was left to carry an attack badly exposed in the seam department.
In fairness to the inexperienced Zimbabwe attack, Pakistani pitches of funereal pace like this one have sapped the will of many top-class Test bowlers. Dave Houghton denounced it as the slowest he had ever seen.
Even Waqar Younis and Wasim Akram, who showed immense patience to make his highest Test score, an unbeaten 144, muttered dark oaths about it, though their failure to obtain any reverse swing was the real key to their lack of success.
What was so disappointing, however, for the Zimbabweans was that, despite the generous turn their spinners obtained, they never looked like getting a wicket. They took one before lunch, but that was it for a day that had begun so promisingly for them. Pakistan, in trouble at 189 for six overnight, moved inexorably to 392 for seven, a lead of 17.
But thanks to the pitch, this first Test looks likely to be drawn. At least, the new 18,000-capacity stadium at Sheikhupura, which has gone up in the last year, is spectator and player friendly. Unusually for a subcontinental ground, it has western-style plastic seats rather than concrete steps and very spacious dressing rooms and dining rooms.
It is Pakistan's 16th Test ground, a surprisingly high number in view of the fact that it became on Thursday the 77th ground to stage a Test match. It is an hour's drive from Lahore with a police escort that is. Without one, it can take two.
Wasim, beautifully clean striker of the ball that he is, has played plenty of glorious one-day cameos, but never a marathon like this - 144 not out in just over five hours. It was his exemplary stroke selection that impressed. Ball after ball he blocked, but when the length was right he drove straight and far with great power to hit five sixes as well as 15 fours. He reached his first Test hundred in Pakistan, and only his second overall, with a huge blow off Andy Whittall's off-spin that landed in the pavilion, scattering a row of veiled women who literally dropped their guard in their excitement.
Neither Wasim nor Saqlain Mushtaq (37 not out off 220 balls) let their concentration slip during their unbroken stand of 158 in 69 overs. Wasim kept talking the youngster along, particularly when Strang regularly beat him outside off stump.
Strang, who bowled 37 of the 85 overs yesterday, became only the 18th player to take five wickets in an innings and score a hundred in the same Test when he had Moin Khan caught at backward point. Only Gary Sobers and Mushtaq Mohammad have done it twice, while Ian Botham is way ahead of the rest on five.
Day 4
Wasim 257 revitalises Pakistan
By Geoffrey Dean in Sheikhupura, Pakistan
SEVERAL Test records fell yesterday, thanks to an extraordinary, undefeated innings of 257 by Wasim Akram against Zimbabwe in Sheikhupura.
His 12 sixes in an eight-hour innings for Pakistan were the most in an individual Test innings, surpassing Wally Hammond's tally of 10 in his 336 not out against New Zealand at Auckland in 1932-33.
Wasim's partnership with Saqlain Mushtaq of 313 in 110 overs was by some way the highest for the eighth wicket. Les Ames and Gubby Allen were the previous record-holders, having put on 246 against New Zealand at Lord's in 1931.
His score was the highest by a No 8 batsman in Test cricket, and the partnership rescued Pakistan from the dire straits of 237 for seven, giving them a slim chance of forcing a victory on the final day.
Their problems were largely of their own making in that all bar one of those wickets had been the result of attacking shots, some of them poorly executed.
By contrast, if there was one consistent theme to the partnership, it was the elimination of sloppy and inappropriate strokes. While Saqlain, technically very correct and a good player of spin for a tailender, did nothing but graft his way to 79 from 358 balls, Wasim applied himself to play a waiting game, though he was dropped on 145.
Given that 160 of his runs came in boundaries from 34 balls, he scored his other 97 off 336. Protracted periods of blocking were interspersed with superbly executed hitting that was always controlled. Above all, he hit straight, with the bulk of his sixes going over long-on.
Akram hoisted nine sixes off Paul Strang's wrist-spin (including three in one over), and his other three came off Andy Whittall's off-spin. He simply waited for them to overpitch or flight the ball, which inevitably they did in the 114 overs they bowled between them.
Both got plenty of turn, but Whittall was too slow through the air to cause real problems. Strang's deserved five victims meant that he became only the 18th player to score a hundred and take five wickets in an innings in the same Test.
The straight boundaries were slightly shorter than average, but nearly all of Wasim's sixes cleared the ropes by at least 30 yards, with two going out of the ground.
He said afterwards that he knew nothing of the sixes record until a message was sent out to him after his eighth. ``Then I thought I might as well go for it. I never thought I could go as far as 200, but I picked my shots well.''
Wasim, whose previous highest score in any first-class cricket was 123, reached his first Test hundred in Pakistan with a six and repeated the feat for the double hundred.
Day 5
Houghton given lucky reprieve
By Geoffrey Dean in Sheikhupura, Pakistan
LUCK was with Zimbabwe yesterday after their tortuous weekend in the field when Pakistan amassed 553 to gain a first-innings lead of 178.
Zimbabwe avoided defeat in this first Test by making 241 for seven and were helped by Wasim Akram, who bowled only three overs yesterday, damaging a toe when diving into some concrete under a boundary board while Waqar Younis again could not get his lethal inswinger to work.
But it was still a terrific effort on Zimbabwe's part to bat out the final day for a draw - an achievement that was beyond England twice last summer.
Zimbabwe were fortunate that Mushtaq Ahmed was absent - he was badly missed - but Saqlain Mushtaq applied consistent pressure with his probing, extravagantly turning off-spin and permanent cluster of close fielders.
But, by bowling wide of off-stump Saqlain allowed himself to be kicked away and it was when he changed to a straighter line that he picked up his three wickets yesterday. Surprisingly, he never came round the wicket to the right-handers.
Waqar complained vehemently about the Pakistani-made balls being used here in a Test match for the first time. ``I just can't get them to reverse swing,'' he said. ``The leather's inferior to Readers or Dukes. The sooner our board change back to them, the better.''
Waqar was still a threat, bowling very fast through the air in his three spells. Even Zimbabwe admitted that he should have had Dave Houghton lbw for nought in the second over of the day, but Khizar Hayat surprisingly gave him the benefit. This was Zimbabwe's lucky break, for Houghton went on to play a key, aggressive innings of 65 before being defeated by low bounce.
The Flower brothers also played crucial roles. Crease occupation is what Grant likes most of all, and he batted for 47 overs while making 46. Andy, a gifted stroke player, admitted he had surprised even himself by being so abstemious in a three hour 30 minute innings for 18 that included only one four.
Pakistan were still very much in with a chance of victory when Guy Whittall joined Andy Flower 25 minutes before tea at 177 for five.
Their survival for 22 overs guaranteed Zimbabwe safety and persuaded large sections of the noisy 11,000 crowd to leave early. They missed the presentation ceremony where Wasim Akram was given the man-of-the-match award for his career-best 257. The second and final Test starts in Faisalabad on Thursday.