Milestones in Miandad marathon

Press, 27 February 1989, Page 21

Milestones in Miandad marathon

From

JOHN COFFEY

in Auckland

The magic of Javed Miandad will live long in the memories of the New Zealanders whe marvelled at his batting skills on the first two days of the deciding Rothmans cricket test at Eden Park.

Miandad dominated proceedings to score 271. Only a truly great player who sets himself the highest possible standards could have been dissatisfied with such a performance. But Miandad was clearly disappointed that he fell just nine runs short of his personal best, and was out within range not only of a triple century but also Sir Garfield Sobers’ world record of 365.

Several other milestones were achieved by Miandad in the 558 minutes he marched towards his mammoth total. This was his sixth double-century. Only Sir Donald Bradman (12) and Walter Hammond (seven) can count more on their career records. It was also Miandad’s sixth three-figure score in his last eight tests — two centuries each against the West Indies, Australia and New Zealand. Miandad’s 271 was the third highest test innings against New Zealand after Hammond’s unbeaten 336 at Auckland in 1932-33 and John Edrich’s 310 not out at Leeds 20 years ago. Only Hammond, Bill Woodfull (284 for Australia against Auckland in 1927-28) and Bert Sutcliffe (275 for Otago against Auckland in 195051) have made bigger scores at Eden Park. It took gritty contributions from Ewan Chatfield, Stephen Boock and John Bracewell to prevent Miandad from etching his name more indelibly into cricket’s folklore, and they were backed by spirited fielding.

Chatfield, Boock and Bracewell were the only specialist bowlers after Richard Hadlee suffered another achilles tendon injury, this time to his left leg as a result of the pounding from his delivery stride on the rocklike pitch. In what might be his final appearance for New Zealand, Chatfield displayed remarkable endurance to bowl more than 50 overs for a second consecutive test.

Although Boock now holds the dubious distinction of having conceded more runs than any New Zealander in a first-class innings, he strongly resisted the pressure applied by Miandad in a spell of 31 successive overs on Saturday. When Bracewell enticed Aamer Malik into a batpad catch at 3.47 p.m. on Saturday it was the first success for the long-suf-fering bowlers since Rizwan-uz-Zaman had been out at 12.3 p.m. the previous day. Miandad had lost his parennial partner, Shoaib Mohammad, to the seventh ball of Saturday’s play. Boock, Mark Greatbatch and lan Smith combined to have Hadlee run Shoaib out at the bowler’s end. The first two days belonged to Miandad, aged 31. His quickness of eye and feet enabled him to make a good percentage of the pitch his own patch. Miandad punished any waywardness of line and length by uncoiling his exquisite cover drives, and five times he delighted in hitting sixes over mid-off from Boock.

It is in Miandad’s nature to be guilty of grandstanding. When he was 199 the New Zealanders tried to play on his nerves by encircling him at single-saving distances. The effervescent Pakistani answered by belting the next ball from Boock into the open seats at long-on. There were many bludgeoning blows to leg, as many delicate back cuts and careful placements to keep his total ticking

over. The only near-fatal error brought a reprieve when Miandad survived a difficult caught-and-bowled chance to Hadlee when on 66 on Friday — it took so great an opponent to find a flaw. All New Zealand could do for most of Saturday was to slow Miandad’s advance. That much was achieved. Boundary riders were posted in defensive field placings, the overrate dawdled, and drinks were taken at leisure. Pakistan mustered 208 runs from 81 overs in a day shortened by 38 minutes because of rain. A little frustration, and a lot of tiredness, probably contributed to Miandad’s eventual downfall. He played lazily forward to yet another medium delivery from Chatfield and edged the ball into lan Smith’s right glove. Miandad was gone, but not forgotten — even by the Minister of the Crown whose slumbers in the V.I.P. section were frequently interrupted by appreciative applause from the other spectators. Sunday’s play, back page