Date-stamped : 09 Jul96 - 02:17 Tetley's Challenge Series Northamptonshire v Pakistanis Northampton 6,7,8 July 1996 ====> REPORT (Day 1, 6 Jul 1996) (Electronic Telegraph, UK) Wasim delivers warning By Peter Deeley at Northampton IT WAS a day full of irony at the County Ground: seven Northamp- tonshire batsmen falling leg before to the pace of Pakistan - the masters of the swinging ball - and not a word said about ball- tampering. Allan Lamb, who has said more than most about the alleged tactics of past Pakistani attacks, was there briefly, though not as a player any longer, instead busying himself with money-raising matters. His book, which deals with the subject is due out shortly, though the club have not yet seen a copy. All one current player (one victim of the lbw plague) would say on the issue was "it sounds like a lot of cobblers to me." No imputation of misconduct could ever be levelled against Wasim Akram and here the Pakistan captain was at his su- perlative best, carving through the top half of the Northants batting line-up with five wickets at a cost of only 14 runs in 40 deliveries. Every one was a leg before, and with the first Test coming up at the headquarters of cricket in just over a fortnight it brings to mind the adage "Lord`s Be Warned". Each decision was given by Peter Willey, the former Northants` player, who will be standing for the series. It was one of those days that only cricket can produce, a morning of utter tedium watching rain falling and an assured start by the Northamptonshire openers followed by an extraor- dinary collapse, all 10 wickets going down for the addition of 63 runs. Then at the end Saeed Anwar - who has scored 409 runs in his last three innings - took 20 off Neil Mallender`s first two overs, including a pulled six and four. When it seemed he would create further havoc John Hughes took over and, with his first delivery, had the left-hander leg be- fore on the back foot for the bowler`s initial first-class wicket of the season. The home side rested much of their attack - including John Emburey and Curtly Ambrose - with the Benson and Hedges Lord`s final against Lancashire only a week away and it was a chance for Alan Fordham to re-establish himself at the top of the order. Fordham and Richard Montgomerie progressed with little trouble to 89 by the 25th over when the mayhem began. Wasim shortened his run up and trapped Montgomerie leaving a bruise margi- nally above the roll. Within another eight overs, half the side were out for the ad- dition of 16 runs and all in the now familiar style, two wick- ets falling in one over to Wasim. He eventually took himself off after bowling unchanged for 20 overs - including the long rain break - finishing with five for 58 and earning the admiration of local watchers who, used to the deeds of such as Ambrose, know a little about world-class quick bowlers. Such was the quality of the three attackers Pakistan used that Saqlain Mushtaq - judged by some to be one of the best off- spinners in the world - was not called upon. Meanwhile, Waqar and Aamir Sohail were resting niggling inju- ries, Inzamam-ul-Haq was seeing a specialist and Salim Malik, who has yet to flourish a bat in earnest on this trip, was meeting his wife. Source :: Electronic Telegraph (http://www.telegraph.co.uk) ====> REPORT (Day 2, 7 Jul 1996) (Electronic Telegraph, UK) Tour : Young guard put on 171 to stake claim By Peter Deeley at Northampton Second day of 3: Northants (152 & 71-0) trail Pakistanis (323) by 100 runs YOUTH had its fling with a vengence as two 19-year-olds rescued the Pakistanis from early batting disasters and gave them a commanding lead which Northamptonshire may find difficult to match. Veteran followers of England`s limping progress in the World Cup will recall a slim, young left-hander who scored 74 in a warm-up game at Karachi`s Gymkhana Club. Soon the name of Shadab Kabir should be known to a wider audience after his 99, an innings of drives, late cuts and not a few full-blooded blows, as sixes off David Capel and Jeremy Snape testify. Given the strength of Pakistan`s batting Kabir may not be given a Test outing yet, though Yawar Saeed, their tour manager, believes he is "a player of immense promise. He will be a feature of our cricket for a long time." That, too, could be said of his partner in the 171-run stand for the eighth wicket - the precise margin of the tourists` first-innings lead. Saqlain Mushtaq is rated as one of the best off-spinners in the game. He was not needed in Northants` first innings but showed in a crisis that he is a reliable late-order batsman. Their young legs were needed as Pakistan`s top order collapsed in the morning against the lively Scott Boswell, making his first-class debut. Boswell, who did well for the Combined Universities against the Indians, is an old-fashioned fast bowler: big, strong and still raw. In three overs at the outset he had Shahid Anwar caught low down in the slips by Capel and then Ijaz Ahmed leg before. As the pitch eased so the Northants` attack - without key players and further weakened by injury to Neil Mallender - be- gan to struggle. An untidy innings by Wasim Akram, Pakistan`s captain, ended when he was bowled trying to hit through midwicket. Kabir and Saqlain dominated everything for the next three hours, estab- lishing a record eighth-wicket partnership for all-comers against Northants. Eventually Capel, with the new ball, broke the partnership, late movement drawing Kabir into an involuntary job. He batted for nearly 4.5 hours and at the end Capel - with his best fig- ures of the season - ended Saqlain`s 3.5-hour stay after he had also hit two sixes. Source :: Electronic Telegraph (http://www.telegraph.co.uk) ====> REPORT (Day 3, 8 Jul 1996) Tour Match: One hundred is one in the eye for Fordham By Peter Deeley at Northampton Northamptonshire (152 & 396-4 dec) drew with Pakistanis (323 & 205-8) CENTURIES by Northamptonshire openers Alan Fordham and Richard Montgomerie in an opening stand of 255 suggests that the county are in high fettle for Saturday`s Lord`s final against Lancashire. Unfortunately, the score book sometimes only tells part of the plot. In the time-honoured phrase, their joint innings was `a game of two halves`. Up to lunch, when they had put on 188 and Fordham had reached his first hundred of the season, the batting was praiseworthy and the Pakistan bowling serious if innocuous. Afterwards, wicketkeepers bowled and bowlers batted in a session of quite nonsensical stuff, and to encourage a declaration, Pakistan used nine bowlers, Saeed Anwar and Shadab Kabir the only men to miss out. Moin Khan took off the pads and claimed two wickets, as did Shahid Anwar, another who rarely turns his arm in earnest. This all did little for the dignity of the game and the events then surrounding Fordham`s eventual retirement were little short of farcical. The batsman had gestured for some time that he wanted to come off and eventually did so with the approval of Wasim Akram and umpire Trevor Jesty at the bowler`s end. Fordham first said that he "wanted to give someone else a chance". Then the penny dropped. Under Law 2.9, a batsman retir- ing incapacitated is deemed not out but if he leaves voluntarily - with no disabling reason - he is marked out. When a player has 144 against his name, the decision can make quite a difference to his average. At tea, there were hurried consultations between umpires, scorer and player. Then it emerged that Fordham had been suffering from previously undisclosed eye trouble. Someone mut- tered "eye wash". Before this game, Fordham`s average was 35.25. Now it is 64.4. So much for the inviolability of statistics. Montgomerie soldiered on to 168, taking 50 off 15 balls at one stage, before being caught in the deep and eventually Pakis- tan were set 226 to win off 33 overs. Shadab Kabir set them off with a brisk half-century and Ijaz Ahmed kept up the pace with 39 off 30 balls. Though the target was huge, Pakistan kept chasing the runs until the death. Source :: Electronic Telegraph (http://www.telegraph.co.uk) Contributed by Shash (shs2@*.cwru.edu)