Reflections on the Lahore Test

After all the ups and downs and some historic performances, the first Test between England and Pakistan, played at the Gaddafi Stadium, reached its logical conclusion. A cursory glance at the record books will reveal that there are far more drawn Tests than decisive ones in Pakistan.

A Test Match is said to be the real test of a player's calibre, technique and temperament; but are the players provided the conditions to prove their mettle?

The passive approach to the game; creating dead pitches, defensive field placing and negative tactics such as time wasting, are some of the factors that have destroyed the charm and popularity of Test Match cricket.

Big scores are inevitable the way pitches are prepared to help the batsmen. Look at Tests in other parts of the world. In the first Test between Zimbabwe and India at New Delhi, Zimbabwe scored 422 runs in their first innings, while India replied with 459 for the loss of only four wickets.

In the Test between New Zealand and South Africa, at Bloemfontein, the South Africans piled up a mammoth total of 471 for 9. High scoring having become the order of the day, why fuss if England scored 480, Pakistan replied with 401 and the Test was drawn?

The Lahore Test ended in an identical to most Tests in Pakistan. Unfortunately, the media exaggerated the potency of Pakistan's spin attack, and underestimated England's batting against spin. Skipper Moin Khan's assertion that "England surprised us by scoring more than 400 runs - beyond our expectations," is amazing.

England possess a galaxy of outstanding batsmen in Mike Atherton, Marcus Trescothick, Nasser Hussain, Graham Thorpe, Alec Stewart and Graeme Hick. Expecting them to lay down their arms without a fight against the Pakistani spinners was folly.

The Chairman of the Pakistan Cricket Board (PCB) also blamed the pitch for the tame draw. Whilst addressing the gathering after opening a health-centre, he admitted that the track was not prepared as per instructions to the ground staff. It was a dead track which neither provided any assistance to seamers nor spinners.

With a magnificent haul of nine wickets in the match, Saqlain Mushtaq was quite successful in extracting spin. A former great spin bowler told me that the bowlers were to blame for not taking wickets. Had there been an expert to guide the spinners the result would have been different.

The statistics of the match will show that the spinners did not fail altogether. During the England first innings Saqlain Mushtaq dominated by clinching all eight wickets that fell. In the Pakistan first innings, the English spinners claimed five wickets. Of the four wickets that fell during England second innings, the spinners claimed three of them. In the overall context, out of the 22 wickets that fell during the match, 16 were claimed by spin.

It is, however, strange that Saqlain apart, the Pakistani spinners under performed. They conceded too many runs and were not penetrative. This is where the former player proves his point.

Of course the pitch is not the only factor in a decisive Test. The major blunder that the planners committed, was to weaken the pace attack by ousting a top bowler like Waqar Younis. A good pace attack is the first and the most important line of attack against the batsmen. The spinners appear on the scene much later. If a relatively inexperienced (though fine) pace bowler like Craig White can put the Pakistan team in dire straits, what could Waqar have done? The periodical jolts given to this Pakistani star with over 300 Test wickets indicate that the PCB may be planning to dispense with him. I believe he is still too good to be relieved.

One should neither have any regrets about the Lahore Test nor create fuss about the manner in which the game progressed and ended. Sometimes things do not go as planned. A dead pitch cannot be bigger than the players who have a brain that dictates how to act in different circumstances.

The match ended in a respectable draw for both teams, with a tilt towards England. England gave an outstanding performance by piling up a total of 480 runs including a sparkling 118 by Graham Thorpe in the first innings.

Pakistan's reply, with 401 scored in a relatively difficult situation, was equally encouraging. Yousuf Youhana deserved bouquets for a marvellous century while Saqlain's feat of notching 8 stars down from the sky will go in the record books. Had England not declared the innings closed Saqlain might have re-created history.