October 11 Friday 2002
Humble beginnings for old foes

SHARJAH: When play gets underway in Sharjah on Friday, it will be 46 years to the day since Australia and Pakistan first locked horns in Test cricket. The 47 Tests between the two have produced some memorable contests, but the beginning was inauspicious to say the least. Australia have won 19 Tests and Pakistan 11, while 17 were drawn.

The year was 1956 and the venue was Karachi for Pakistan's easy nine-wicket win, but neutral onlookers will hope the second Test of the current series packs more of a punch.

Australia squeezed in a one-match visit on the way home from playing in England. But it was they who were given the squeeze as the youngest member of the Imperial Cricket Conference recorded a unique but tepid victory.

Played on a matted wicket, the Test spanned six days and boasted just 535 runs in 302.3 overs of cricket.

Having won the toss and elected to bat, Ian Johnson's Australia batted like drunken snails and were bowled out for 80 shortly after tea. Just two bowlers were used by home skipper Abdul Kardar - Fazal Mahmood and Khan Mohammad - but with wickets dropping like flies only two were needed.

The lack of urgency was clearly contagious, and by day's close Pakistan had crawled to 15 for two. The 95 runs scored in the day remains a record for the slowest in Test cricket history, before the days of Sunil Gavaskar and Chris Tavare.

The second day saw Pakistan take a stranglehold on the game as Kardar and Wazir Mohammad added 104 for the sixth wicket.

The only bright spot for Australia, who were 119 in arrears on first-innings scores, was Ray Lindwall taking his 200th Test wicket. A half-century from Richie Benaud highlighted an improved Aussie performance second time around, but when they were dismissed for 187 Pakistan needed just 69 to win.

But after almost three hours of cricket they were amazingly still six runs short for the loss of a solitary wicket.

With the following day one of mourning to mark the anniversary of the death of the country's first Prime Minister Liaquat Ali Khan, the match was settled two days later.

Australia got their revenge in a three-Test return visit three years later, and would retain supremacy for such a while that Pakistan would not again taste victory until the Sydney Test in 1977.

In all, Australia hold a clear head-to-head edge and their recent dominance has certainly helped them in that regard.

Heated exchanges between Dennis Lillee and Javed Miandad in Australia in 1983 added a touch of niggle between two previously well-behaved teams. Australia's refusal to tour Pakistan for fear of security has given the current series an added dimension. But no matter what transpires on the neutral soil of Sharjah, we are unlikely to encounter a contest nearly as bizarre as the first one all those years ago.