THE Pakistan-England cricket relationship that kicked off back with the tour of the MCC in 1951-52 has seen many ups and downs.

Cricket itself has changed from a sport into a hugely popular money-making industry.

Over this period of six decades, the cricket tours both by England and Pakistan, the two international sides so often has been undermined by politics, race, sub-standard umpiring, ball-tampering and match-fixing.

Pakistan achieved the unexpected and the unprecedented on their first tour of England by winning one Test and so drawing the series. No other touring side had managed to win a Test on their first visit.

Here, we take a brief look at every England-Pakistan series starting from 1954:

—1954 in England: On their maiden England tour, the young Pakistan side enjoyed a startling success by achieving a win at The Oval in the final Test to square the series.

Fazal Mahmood’s 12-wicket haul on a low-scoring rain-affected strip, helped Pakistan to achieve a memorable win and a unique distinction of becoming the only touring team to beat England in a Test match, on their inaugural tour.

The New Zealand and Indians at the time were still searching for their initial breakthrough and South Africa (28 years) and West Indies (22) though a grind before winning their first Test match in England; the feat remains unparalleled to this day.

In the thrilling last Test at The Oval, where Pakistan won by 24 runs, England needed 168 to win and were 109-2 at one stage, but collapsed completely and were out for 143.

Fazal took 6-53 and 6-46 to offset Johnny Wardle’s 7-56 in Pakistan’s second innings.

—1961-62 in Pakistan: In the second week of October 1961, the MCC squad arrived to play their first official Test series in Pakistan.

The tourists were led by new captain ‘Ted’ Dexter, and after playing the first three games in Pakistan, flew over to India for five Test matches, and latter on concluded the tour with another two Test matches in Dhaka and Karachi.

England’s first Test victory at Lahore by five wickets with 35 minutes to spare proved decisive. Pakistan began strongly, but slumped from 315-3 to 378-9 with Javed Burki scoring 138.

Hanif Mohammad scored a century in each innings of a dull draw at Dhaka, and Dexter’s double century (205) and Parfitt’s 111in England’s 507 in the last Test gave Pakistan no hope of squaring the series.

—1962 in England: Bowling was the tourists’ main weakness, and only once could they dismiss England for less than 400.

Both Parfitt and Graveney enjoyed average of 100 or more, and no Pakistan bowler averaged less than 30 in Tests. This was young, inexperienced side, and it found the English conditions vastly different from those at home with Burki leading the side.

They lost four of five Tests with huge margins, and the fourth Test was saved, with the combination of rain and Mushtaq’s fighting century on the last day.

Four times out of the five they were asked to follow-on and at Lord’s they began their second innings, with a deficit of 270. Twice, in the second and the third Test match, the game finished within three days.

—1967 in England: Pakistan’s main problem again was their bowling, for although they had a capable spin attack, there was no penetrating fast bowling.

The batting had more depth, but, like the Indians earlier in the season, the Pakistanis seemed reluctant to throw caution to the wind.

Only when Asif Iqbal launched his unexpected attack at The Oval was there any indication of what might have been.

Pakistan were to share the English Summer with Indians, each participating in a three-match series. The first six fixtures against counties were all drawn, which indeed was a bad start particularly as the bowling attack had seemed very ordinary.

—1968-69 in Pakistan: Internal political riots ruined the series and finally caused the abandonment of the third Test.

The unrest was apparent from the first Test, in which Colin Cowdrey scored 100 and Asif (70) and Majid Khan (68) batted well for Pakistan.

Basil D’Oliveria’s unbeaten 114 was the outstanding innings of a dull game at Dhaka.

At Karachi, Colin Milburn enlivened the proceedings with a quickfire 139, Tom Graveney scored 105, and Alan Knott was within four runs of his maiden Test century when rioting stopped play.

For the MCC tour in February-March 1969, Saeed Ahmed was chosen to lead the country.

This hastily arranged tour only took place, as the MCC tour of South Africa had to be cancelled, in the wake of D’Oliveria affair.

—1971 in England: Pakistan’s fourth tour of England proved a success in the sense of that the team seemed to be competing on equal terms. Intikhab Alam’s team showed some consistency and with half a dozen players engaged with various counties.

In the first Test, Pakistan kept the hosts in the field for more than two days as they amassed 608-7. Young Zaheer Abbas batted just over nine hours for a magnificent 274 and shared a second-wicket stand of 291 with Mushtaq Mohammad (100).

Asif also reached his century, and it needed a fighting 73 by D’Oliveria and 116 from Knott to give the England innings respectability after Asif Masood had shown the England bowlers up.

England followed on 255 behind, but rain on the final day cost Pakistan almost certain victory.

Rain for most of the second Test meant that all depended on Headingley, where England won an exciting victory by 25 runs.

The tourists needed 231 for victory with more than a day to play, but on the final day Ray Illingworth made the initial breakthrough on a wicket that had threatened to take spin throughout, and though the youngest Mohammad, Sadiq, scored 91, the series somewhat unjustly eluded Pakistan.

—1972-73 in Pakistan: The tourists arrived in Pakistan after a 2-1 loss in India and their weariness undoubtedly contributed to three rather stagnant Tests in which the Pakistan batting held the upper hand.

The England batting coped marginally more successfully than they had in India and always made enough runs to survive.

The last match provided if nothing else a remarkable statistics in that three batsmen were dismissed for 99. That fate befell both Majid Khan and Mushtaq Mohammad in Pakistan’s first innings of 445 for six declared.

And Dennis Amiss, seeking his third hundred in successive Tests, fell at the same score as England totalled 386.

The three-Test series in March 1973, that followed did not provide any major controversy for a change, for the simple reason that the two captains in question .i.e. Majid Khan and Tony Lewis, both Cambridge Blues, had been teammates at Glamorgan since 1968.

—1974 in England: Pakistan brought perhaps their strongest side to England and returned home undefeated but all three Tests ended as draws.

At Headingely and Lord’s, rain robbed England off victory with the final Test on the paceless wicket at The Oval produced a high-scoring but boring stalemate.

For Pakistan, Zaheer constructed a marvellous 240.

For the third time running Pakistanis were to share the summer with the Indians, with both teams playing in limited-overs matches for Prudential Trophy plus the three-Test series.

The tour proved historic for the fact that Intikhab’s team remained unbeaten on the entire tour, thus emulating Don Bradman’s 1948 team.

—1977-78 in Pakistan: The Test series between Pakistan and the touring English side, was played without the Packers Boys on either sides.

Long-serving wicket-keeper Wasim Bari led Pakistan with all three Tests ending in draws.

The first Test, at Lahore was remarkable for Mudassar Nazar’s 557-minute century — the slowest ever in any Test — and more attractive innings by Haroon Rasheed (122) and Javed Miandad (71).

England had some anxious moments before the second Test, at Hyderabad, was drawn. Haroon with another century, and Miandad (88 not out), took Pakistan to 275 and the leg-spinner Abdul Qadir confused the England batsmen taking 6 for 44.

—1978 in England: In the opening Test at Edgbaston, Pakistan were devastated by Chris Old’s 7-50 and improved their 165 only to 231 at the second attempt after England had mustered 452 for eight.

A blot on England’s innings victory was the facial injury sustained by nightwatchman Iqbal Qasim when Bob Willis bowled him a bouncer.

An even more crushing innings defeat followed at Lord’s, where Ian Botham made history in scoring 108 and taking 8-34 when Pakistan followed-on.

Heavy rain at Leeds cut over 19 hours from the match and spared Pakistan and possibility of a clean sweep. Sadiq made 97.

—1982 in England: Imran Khan took over Pakistan’s captaincy from Javed Miandad prior to the tour and although Pakistan lost the series 2-1, they gave England the toughest of fights.

In the first Test at Edgbaston, Imran led from the front with a superb 7-52 but Pakistan lost the Test due to batting failure.

At Lord’s, Pakistan achieved a memorable ten-wicket win — only their second victory over England and the first in 28 years.

Mohsin Khan (496 minutes, 386 balls, and 23 fours) recorded the first double century in a Lord’s Test since 1949 and was the second after Zaheer Abbas to make 200 for Pakistan against England.

In England’s first innings extras were top-scorer for the first time in Test matches. In the second innings, Mudassar Nazar proved unplayable, he took everyone by surprise with his stint of 6-32.

On this performance he was given the title of ‘The Man with the Golden Arm’. Pakistan lost the third Test at Leeds by a narrow margin of three wickets due to some controversial decisions.

To be continued

Published in Dawn, October 12th , 2015

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