2ND MATCH -- ZIMBABWE v PAKISTAN

The Zimbabweans now flew back to Australia, to play their next match on the island of Tasmania. Tasmania has a cooler climate than the rest of Australia, but this day was hot and sunny, and the pitch was very hard, quick and bouncy. It was white and shiny from heavy cutting and rolling, and Dave Houghton rated it as even faster than that at Perth when he played there two years later, and this put Zimbabwe at a marked disadvantage against Pakistan, who had much the faster bowlers.

At the start of this match, as usual, the two teams lined up on the field for the national anthems, but the Pakistani captain Imran Khan did not come out with the other players. The Zimbabweans felt this implied a lack of respect for the opposition and the hosts. He was playing in the match although not fully fit and did not bat or bowl, so perhaps he was afraid an unnecessary journey might jeopardise his chances of playing.

Before the match, according to Iain Butchart, the teams exchanged bats for each other to sign. The Zimbabweans sent 15 miniature bats to the Pakistanis, while they sent 300 to the Zimbabweans, which Imran wanted for his cancer hospital. The Zimbabweans spent the whole morning signing the bats and returned them, but when the Pakistanis returned the bats there were only eight signatures on them -- not including Imran's. At the airport the following morning the teams met again, and Andy Waller, very angry, asked Imran if he had signed the bats. Imran replied that he didn't think he had, and Waller asked why not, as they had been in the Pakistani changing room all day and the Zimbabweans had signed all his bats. Waller then gave Imran a few well-chosen words, and for once it was enough to persuade the Pakistani captain to get his team to complete the job.

Zimbabwe put Pakistan in to bat on winning the toss, hoping to benefit from the fast pitch, and also doubtless in the hope that it would have lost some of its fire when their turn came. In the first over Andy Pycroft remembers Eddo Brandes bowling a bouncer at Aamer Sohail, which bounced so high that the batsman did not even need to duck, and it cleared the keeper to go for a one-bounce four on one of the longest straight boundaries in cricket. It was also a no-ball, so that is how the scorebook recorded it. Kevin Duers feels that the Zimbabweans were still feeling rather depressed after their loss to Sri Lanka and failed to lift their game or field at their best.

Zimbabwe dismissed two batsmen quite cheaply, having Rameez Raja caught at the wicket and Inzamam-ul-Haq caught at fine leg. Then Aamer Sohail and Javed Miandad shared a partnership of 145 for the third wicket at virtually a run a ball which took the match quite out of Zimbabwe's grasp. Ali Shah has vivid memories of Javed reverse-sweeping the ball; while other players such as Houghton would paddle the ball skilfully, relying on timing and placement, Javed hit it so powerfully that he could easily record a one-bounce four. He was particularly severe on John Traicos, who was uncharacteristically expensive, but the pitch hardly suited his bowling. Shah bowled very well for his economical figures. The pace bowlers, though, did tend to bowl rather too short, always a temptation on a bouncy pitch. The Zimbabweans always felt that the Pakistani total was likely to be too much for them.

Andy Flower was also most impressed by Javed's innings. It was a very controlled knock; he angled the ball all over the field, opening the blade of his bat and walking across his stumps to play his strokes. Flower, behind the stumps, remembers it as a real lesson in the art of batting.

Shah was surprised to find that, despite his controversial reputation, Javed was a pleasant person to talk to and was quite impressed with the Zimbabweans' cricket, saying that he believed there was only a thin line between their standard of play and that of the rest of the world. It was just a matter of crossing that line, and they needed to be guided in the right way, with the right coach. When asked what sort of coach he would recommend, he felt the psychological side was important, a coach able to make the batsmen in particular believe in their own ability, rather than a good technical coach.

On such a pitch Wasim Akram was devastating, removing Andy Flower and Andy Pycroft very quickly with balls that bounced and swung at terrific pace. Flower snicked a rising ball outside off stump into the slips, while Pycroft was bowled by a very quick inswinging yorker. Kevin Arnott, who faced 61 balls for only seven runs, says this was one of the worst innings he played, but he was scarcely able to get a bat on the ball. He feels, though, that the batsmen did allow themselves to get overawed by the bowling and the pitch. Flower when on 4 had actually had his stumps grazed by a ball from Aaqib, but the bail did not fall.

Houghton faced his first delivery from Wasim, a bouncer which he never managed to pick up at all. It flew past his face and over the wicket-keeper's head from only just short of a length as he stood there unable to move, and others in the team felt that had it hit him, as he was wearing a helmet without a visor, he would have been killed. He was wearing his trademark large green helmet that the other players referred to as his motor-bike helmet. Moin Khan, the keeper, suggested in genuine sympathy that he had better use a visor if he wanted to see the innings through (which he didn't), while Wasim walked down the pitch to inspect the spot where the ball had pitched. When Shah went in to bat, next in the order, he could understand how Houghton had been unable to see that delivery, as the white ball on the white pitch was very difficult to sight.

He and Houghton began a recovery, but they had to fight hard and Zimbabwe fell inevitably behind the required scoring rate. It proved possible for determined batsmen to adjust to the pitch and the bowling, but it took more time than was available in a one-day match. After 30 overs the score was only 69 for three. Soon it was clear that they had nothing left to play for but their pride. Andy Waller and Iain Butchart hit out boldly in a good partnership of 79 in 42 minutes later on, but by this time the scoring rate was beyond recall. Ali Shah recalls how one of them, probably Butchart, hit Wasim back over his head for a one-bounce four, to which the bowler shouted out, 'I can't wait till you guys play Test cricket and then I'll kill you!' -- perhaps a rather uncharacteristic reaction. A few words were exchanged between the players during this partnership, the nearest to sledging the Zimbabweans encountered during the tournament.

Butchart remembers how Waller was nervous of facing Wasim, having been told by Houghton at the team meeting how he could swing the white ball all over the place -- 'but if he bowls round the wicket there's nothing I can say to help you because he's the best bowler in the world there.' Butchart says that when Wasim returned for a second spell to bowl at Waller, he turned the first ball to leg where they could probably have taken three, as the fielder was placed very square; however, on reaching the far end Waller took his gloves off and left Butchart to see out the over! Butchart recalls that as a nightmare, as he was playing and missing at everything, and at one stage about five fielders were placed in the gully area as the ball kept flying there off the shoulder of his bat, while Waller was chuckling down at the far end. Butchart still regularly ribs Waller about his fear of Wasim!

Wasim did get Waller out when they finally faced each other, though. Earlier on Waller had hit a massive six off leg-spinner Iqbal Sikander into the grandstand at square leg, providing some entertainment at the death for a crowd of just over 1000, the smallest of the tour. Mention should also be made of good bowling by Mushtaq Ahmed, who did not take a wicket but troubled all the batsmen and kept the scoring down.

In spite of their victory in this match and in the tournament itself, Pakistan did not look a happy side. Despite Imran Khan's supposed reputation as a great captain, Andy Pycroft remembers them squabbling among each other, the team split into factions and Imran himself looking quite uninterested in sorting them out. Things obviously changed later on as they started winning matches, but certainly they made few friends on that tour.

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