Column | Deja vu for Pakistan team & supporters

Pakistan cricket has been in the news for all the wrong reasons during the last 24 months. If the losses in Test matches in the home series against England and New Zealand were a bitter pill to swallow, the defeat at the hands of the lowly USA in the International Cricket Council (ICC) T20 World Cup would have shocked even the hardcore supporters. Worse was to follow when the team lost a Test series to Bangladesh at home, thus touching a now low in their cricketing fortunes. The Pakistan supporters must have breathed a sigh of relief when their team scored a total in excess of 500 runs (556) in the first innings of the opening Test of the ongoing series against England at Multan. But their relief proved to be a short-lived one as Pakistan continued their trend of not winning Test matches at home by crashing to an innings defeat.

It is a time tested strategy of home teams taking on stronger visiting sides to prepare flat tracks where ball does not rise above knee height. On such surfaces, the absence of bounce and carry will effectively neutralise speedsters while the lack of grass on the surface will render the swing bowlers toothless. Further, these pitches are so well prepared that no cracks or fissures appear on them and hence they do not give help to spin bowlers even after game is played on them for three and four days. In short, they are the perfect surfaces for batsmen who wish to stay at the crease and accumulate runs. Indian sub continent used to boast of many venues which used to prepare such pitches, where matches used to end in high-scoring draws. It was a surfeit of Tests of this nature with no result being produced at the end of five days that led to loss of popularity of the longer version of the game. 

Fortunately, pitches of this nature, that produce tall scores without any result, have become rare in India from the 1990s onwards. However, they are still prepared in Pakistan and it was on one such wicket that the Test match at Multan was played. The hosts won the toss and decided to bat, which acted as a further insurance against defeat as this ensured not only the opportunity to bat first on this flat track but also avoid the inconvenience of batting last, when the wicket might slow down a bit. The Pakistani batsmen did full justice to the job at hand and piled up 556, helped by centuries from the blades of opener Abdulla Shafique, skipper Shan Masood and all-rounder Salman Agha. When they started bowling, they got an early breakthrough as stand-in England skipper Ollie Pope fell in the second over without scoring.

However, from then on the England batsmen made merry. Helped by a triple century by Harry Brook and his fourth-wicket partnership of 454 with veteran Joe Root, England went on to record a mammoth total of 823/7, when they declared their innings closed. Brook’s knock of 317, which came off a mere 322 balls and included 29 boundaries and three sixes, put to shade a career-best double century by Root, who became England’s highest run-getter in Tests, overtaking Alastair Cook, during the course of his innings. The visitors were helped by the power-hitting of Ben Duckett and Jamie Smith, which enabled them a scoring rate of 5.48, when they closed their innings after 150 overs.

All that Pakistan had to do was to hold their nerve and preserve their wickets when their second turn at the crease came. But they made heavy weather of it and wickets fell in a heap to a combination of spineless batting and rash shots. The scoreboard showed an abysmal situation 82/6, when Salman and Aamer Jamal came together to give some semblance of respectability to their total. But their efforts could not undo the damage already done and the side collapsed for 220, leaving England winners by a margin of an innings and 47 runs. Brook was named Player of the Match for his triple ton.

This sudden and shocking turn of events from the second session of fourth day must have created a sense of deja vu among the players forming part of the Pakistan side as well amongst its supporters. In December, 2022, a similar set of events unfolded at Rawalpindi during the first Test of the series between the two sides. England batted first and scored 657, while Pakistan replied in a similar vein posting a total of 579. England raced to 264 in their second innings, at which point they declared, leaving Pakistan a target of 343. Pakistan put up a good fight but went down by a margin of 74 runs, with the last wicket falling when only less than 10 overs remained for the stumps to be drawn.  

It must be a shattering experience for Pakistan to lose two Tests within a span of two years after  their batsmen had scored more than 550 runs in the first innings. While the blame will invariably be placed on their batsmen who could not survive on a pitch where batting was not a difficult task in the second innings, credit should be given to the willow-wielders from England for their exemplary performance. The visitors were unfazed by the big totals of their opponents and went about scoring runs briskly, which provided their bowlers with ample time to pick up all 10 wickets in the second outing.  

This amazing turn of events raised questions in the minds of those followers of the game who are inclined statistically as to whether there were any instances in the past where a side that posted runs in excess of 500 in the first innings went on to lose Test matches. It emerges from the data available that while this is not a regular occurrence, it is not uncommon either. There have been nine instances other than the two cited above where sides that scored runs in excess of 500 runs in the first innings lost the Test. Incidentally, five of them features England while one match involves India as well.

India toured Australia for a four-Test series in 2003-04 and took on a strong home side led by Steve Waugh. After a drawn first Test at Brisbane, the sides moved to Adelaide for the second match. Batting first, Australia put up a total of 556 runs, helped by a brilliant knock of 242 by Ricky Ponting. In reply, India were in a spot losing four wickets for 85 runs, when V V S Laxman joined Rahul Dravid at the crease. The duo added 303 runs for the fifth wicket, when Laxman was dismissed after scoring 148. Dravid completed his double century in the company of tailenders and took the total to 523, when he became the last batsman to fall, with his individual score at 233. When Australia batted again Ajit Agarkar picked up six wickets for 41 runs, while Sachin Tendulkar chipped in with the scalps of Steve Waugh and Damien Martin. India were set a target of 230, which they reached with four wickets to spare. Dravid again played the role of an anchor to perfection with an unbeaten 72 and hit the winning runs.

Another interesting instance where a side lost a Test after scoring more than 500 runs in first innings took place at Port of Spain, Trinidad, in 1968, when England took on the West Indies. The hosts piled up a total of 526/7 in the first innings, with Rohan Kanhai and Seymour Nurse hitting centuries. In reply, England could make only 404 runs, with skipper Colin Cowdrey leading the way with a majestic 148. When the West Indies batted again, Sobers sprung a surprise by declaring the innings closed, with the total at 92/2. This set England a target of 214, which they had to score in close to 200 minutes. If Sobers was expecting the pitch to help the bowlers, it did not happen as England batsmen grabbed this opportunity with both hands and skilfully piloted their side to a seven-wicket win. Sobers faced a barrage of criticism for this declaration, but for which the match would have ended in a tame draw.

England’s win over Pakistan at Multan will not be the last one of a team making more than 500 runs in the first innings and still end up on the losing side. It is this capacity of Test matches to throw up surprise results that led to coining the phrase “glorious uncertainties of the game”, in relation to cricket. Such sudden and unexpected turnaround in the course of a match is unique to Test cricket and adds to its lustre. One hopes that the coming months will see more such games which offer the spectators top quality cricket and edge-of-the-seat excitement and add to the charm and allure of Test cricket.

(The author is a former international cricket umpire and a retired bureaucrat)