Pakistan well placed after two centuries

Press, 25 February 1989, Page 92

Pakistan well placed after two centuries

From

JOHN COFFEY

in AUCKLAND

The cricketing maxi-series starring Shoaib Mohammad and Javed Miandad, filmed in Wellington two weeks ago, was replayed at a fast-forward pace at Eden Park yesterday.

By stumps on the first day of the deciding test in the Rothmans series, Shoaib and Miandad had Pakistan at 289 for two wickets — safe from defeat and stragically well placed to seek victory.

Their own unbroken partnership has been worth 245 runs, 25 more than the third-wicket record they established at the Basin Reserve. But if the main characters were the same, the manner in which they handled the script had changed dramatically. A dirge at the Basin Reserve was transformed into a lively march towards yesterday’s dominant position.

Whereas in Wellington Shoaib and Miandad spent six hours together, they required less than four hours to improve upon their second test partnership.

Miandad needed an hour and a half less for his century, Shoaib clipped more than an hours from his time.

Yet there was probably a little concern in the Pakistan camp when Miandad joined Shoaib. The experienced Mudassar Nazar had again been dismissed cheaply —Richard Hadlee’s 396th test victim — and his opening partner, Rizwan-uz-Zaman, caught at slip from Stephen Boock’s bowling with the total only 44.

Psychologically, though, the advantage was with the tourists. So much emphasis in the pre-match buildup had been directed towards the pitch, so convinced were all who had observed it that only the team batting first could win, the Pakistanis should still have been glowing with pleasure that Imran Khan’s call of “heads” was correct.

Certainly, Shoaib, who at Wellington had proved himself to be one of sport’s greatest anaesthetists, startled those who endured his recent 12hour marathon by hook-

ing the second ball he faced from Hadlee to the boundary. Rip van Winkle had awakened!

There were to be a couple of snoozes from the conscientious little fellow in mid-afternoon as he edged his way to a second consecutive test century — and only his third in 22 matches.

But generally he kept moving at a reasonable clip in a role which became increasingly more supportive to that of Miandad.

It was really a scene made for Miandad. The backdrop must have reminded him of home. A barren pitch, an accent on slow bowling, and the dust and din emanating from the reconstruction work on the South Stand placed Miandad in the middle of a very familiar picture. Miandad is the type who would never accept a nomination for best supporting player. It is in his mood to dominate, and he did just that yesterday. The second delivery he faced was hoicked for four to mid-wicket, a shot which might have persuaded a Sunday social cricketer to reassess his technique. Boock suffered then, and more so moments later when Miandad magnificently off-drove the ball into the bleachers for six.

On three more occasions spectators were given fielding tasks as Miandad hit cleanly over the long-off fence. And there have been several truly unforgettable cover drives among the 17 other boundaries which have fairly blazed across a lush outfield. Miandad reached his century off 152 balls (Shoaib took 214). After giving Shoaib 21 runs start, Miandad beat him to three figures by 38 minutes. But Miandad fluffed his lines once. When he was 66 and Pakistan 170 he returned a catch to Hadlee, only for the ball to spill from the bowler’s left hand as he fell alongside the pitch.

This has been a golden summer for batsmen, so ■ much so that Miandad’s century was the fortyfourth in first-class cricket, a national record for a season. Perhaps only Graeme Hick has matched the mastery of Miandad, and Hick, of course, was performing in a looser class of cricket. Hadlee’s miss was the second from his bowling. John Wright had spilled a low catch offered by Rizwan to mid-off when he was 14. That was inexpensive, other than impeding Hadlee’s hopes of reaching 400 test wickets in this match. Just before lunch Shoaib mishit the ball tantalisingly close to Robert Vance, also from Hadlee. Those close encounters testified to the manner in which Hadlee extracted a little life from a totally unsympathetic surface. The best his teammates could achieve was a Slowing of Pakistan’s imperious progress. Ewen Chatfield did that by never wavering from his most parsimonious line and length, but neither Boock nor John Bracewell could gain sufficient bounce or turn to keep Miandad, especially, and Shoaib under control. Today’s storyline will very probably be of many more runs before Pakistan’s innings is closed by declaration. But the last scene is still unwritten — will it be of New Zealand resistance and retention of its long unbeaten sequence in home series, or of a crumbling pitch and batting chaos? PAKISTAN First innings Mudassar Nazar lbw b Hadlee .. .. . 5 Rizwan-Uz-Zaman c J. Crowe b Boock 15 Shoaid Mohammed not out. 110 Javed Miandad not out . . 154 Extras (lb 4 nbl) 5 Total (for 2 wkts) 289 Fall: 10, 44. To bat: Salim Malik, Aamer Malik, Imran Khan, Saleem Yousuf, Abdul Qadir, Tauseef Ahmed, Saleem Jaffer. Bowling: R. Hadlee 22, 5, 58, 1 (nbl): E. Chatfield 23, 7, 44, 0; S. Boock 25, 3, 89, 1; J. Bracewell 20, 3, 78, 0; A. Jones 3,0, 16, 0.