In the first Test against Pakistan in Karachi, Mark Taylor took an unwanted Test record – becoming the first player to make a pair on their debut as Test captain.
First published in The Age and The Sydney Morning Herald on October 1, 1994
Waqar Younus celebrates as Mark Taylor makes a pair. Friday, Sept. 30, 1994 at the National Stadium in Karachi.Credit:B.K.Bangash, AP
TAYLOR’S SPOT OF HISTORY: 0 AND 0
KARACHI, Friday: Mark Taylor’s mind must have been a vortex of conflicting emotions today as he became the first man to make a pair on his debut as Test captain, but his Australian team edged a little closer to what would be an historic victory over Pakistan.
David Boon’s mind was fixed resolutely on that win as he outlived two chances, a controversial incident involving Pakistani leg-spinner Mushtaq Ahmed and a hat-trick delivery from Wasim Akram to make 85 not out.
That innings redoubled in value near stumps when Australia’s cause was set back gravely by three rapid dismissals. Mark Waugh (61) was bowled by Waqar Younis to finish another century partnership with Boon, and Michael Bevan and Steve Waugh were shot out for ducks in consecutive balls by Akram in the next over.
Australia had lost 3/3 in six balls, and limped back into the dressing room at 5/181. But its lead is 262, and although the pitch remains firm, both Pakistani spinners were extracting significant spin. Shane Warne’s fingers are clicking, Pakistan’s batting is talented, but brittle, and a fourth-innings target of beyond 250 will surely be beyond its powers. More than two days remain.
It was another eventful, absorbing and frequently tense day at the National Stadium. Australia took the last three wickets of Pakistan’s first innings in just more than an hour in the morning to establish a first innings lead of 81
Australia’s second innings began disastrously when Taylor hung out his bat, latterly just an accoutrement, at a delivery angled across him in Waqar’s first over and wicketkeeper Rashid Latif accepted the catch. It was all that umpire Dickie Bird, who has witnessed plenty of tragedy in his record 61 Tests, could bear to formalise the dismissal by raising his finger.
Taylor had made only one duck in his 54 Tests before this match, and had never made a pair in first-class cricket. It will scarcely improve his humour to know that both Richie Benaud and Allan Border also made pairs while leading Australia. He has now made only one double-figure score in seven innings in tour, and his form, until now dismissed as the rub of the green, must now be officially a concern.
Boon’s innings was distinguished by courage and class, and also laced with adventure, once being sat on his backside during a Wasim Akram barrage. He survived chances at 28 and 58, and would not be budged in the confrontation with Mushtaq at 38 when the leg-spinner claimed to have caught-and-bowled him. Bird, after consulting his partner Khizar Hayat, allowed him to bat on.
Mark Taylor in 1994Credit:Sydney Morning Herald
It was a hot and sticky day in Karachi, and it became even clammier after this moment, which will strain the hitherto civil relationship between the sides.
Post-script: Pakistan made 9/315 in their second innings reaching the 314 needed for victory with a 57-run partnership for the 10th wicket, including the winning runs coming off a missed stumping chance. Greg Baum reported on the conclusion of the match:
The National Stadium was once more Australia’s heartbreak hotel today when the tourists lost the first cricket Test to Pakistan by one wicket, and not even legendary English umpire Dickie Bird’s judgment that it was the best Test in which he had stood could console them.
Champion leg-spinner Shane Warne was nearly Australia’s hero again, taking five wickets in an innings for the sixth time in his 27-match career to bowl Pakistan, seeking 314 for victory, to the threshold of defeat at 9/258. Warne won the hollow honour of being named man of the match.
But Pakistan’s man of the moment was Inzamam Ul Haq, who came in at No.8 to thump 58 not out and share half-century partnerships with an ill Rashid Latif (35), for the eighth wicket, and Mushtaq Ahmed (20 not out), for the 10th wicket that won the match for his country.
It was Mushtaq’s highest Test score, and his stand of 57 with Inzamam was the largest last-wicket partnership to win a Test match, reflecting their cool as cricketers, but also the unchanging blandness of the pitch.
It came down to a confrontation between Inzamam and Warne. With three runs needed, Inzamam stepped out to Warne, only for the ball to take a fine deflection from his front pad and run away past wicketkeeper Ian Healy to the boundary rope in front of the pavilion.
Warne appealed for lbw, but umpire Bird was already signalling four leg byes, thereby finishing the match.
Inzamam raised his arms in triumph, and said later that it was a greater moment for him than winning the 1992 World Cup, in which he also played the decisive innings. The Australians fell to their haunches and Healy swatted down the stumps.
