Paul Dyson (stats) and Nigel Pullan (text) look back at Pakistan’s first visit to England in 1954 and to four of the other Test matches it has played at Headingley. The photo of Geoff Boycott comes courtesy of Mick Pope.
Pakistan was granted Test status in 1952 and its first tour of England was in 1954. They did not play a Test Match at Headingley that year but met Yorkshire at Bramall Lane in June and lost by seven wickets. It was a full Yorkshire team and Brian Close made 123 not out, Johnny Wardle 72 and Frank Lowson 70. Pakistan followed on after Close took four for 54 but did much better in their second innings as captain Abdul Hafeez Kardar hit 139 – he had played for India on their tour of 1946 and for Oxford University – and Waqar Hassan 75. Pakistan came to Scarborough in September to play against TN Pearce’s XI. I was present as a schoolboy recovering from A Levels and remember Imtiaz Ahmed’s fine 105, Alec Bedser taking four for 53 and three for 70, and Ted Lester hitting exactly 100. Fazal Mahmood, who took 12 wickets for 99 to win the Oval Test did not play at either Sheffield or Scarborough.
1971
July, 8, 9, 10, 12, 13, 1971 at Headingley: England 316 (G Boycott 112, BL D’Oliveira 74) & 264 (BL D’Oliveira 72, DL Amiss 56, Salim Altaf 4-11); Pakistan 350 (Zaheer Abbas 72, Wasim Bari 63, Mushtaq Mohammad 57) & 205 (Sadiq Mohammad 91). England won by 25 runs.
Pakistan came to Headingley for a Test on their second tour in 1962 and lost by an innings and 117 runs. England won the 1971 Test by 25 runs at the end of a particularly enthralling last day. Pakistan had been set 231 to win but lost four wickets for 65, three to England’s captain, Raymond Illingworth. But Sadiq Mohammad was in top form putting on 95 with Asif Iqbal so Pakistan were favourites. Then Basil D’Oliveira dismissed Sadiq and Intikhab Alam and Peter Lever finished off the innings with the new ball, the last three wickets falling for only two runs.
On the first day Geoffrey Boycott was in fine form making 112 and received good support from Basil D’Oliveira. Wisden is critical of Pakistan’s slow batting on the Saturday (day three) but it gained them a lead of 34, Zaheer Abbas making 72. England were indebted again to D’Oliveira in their second innings who made 72 and Illingworth 45 having been dropped on one. Wicket-keeper Wasim Bari took eight catches of high quality – at the time a record for any Headingley Test.
There were four brothers in the Mohammad family who represented Pakistan. Wasir was the eldest; he came in 1954 and played in a total of 20 Test Matches as a middle-order batsman and made 42 not out in the win at The Oval. Hanif was the outstanding Pakistani batsman of his era. He was quite short, boyish, curly-haired and gentle of manner but had rigorous self-discipline. He broke records for the longest and highest first-class innings, the former still standing. The longest was 337 in the Bridgetown Test on the 1957/1958 tour of West Indies which took him 970 minutes. The highest was 499 (run out!) for Karachi against Bahawalpur, since beaten by Brian Lara. The third brother, Mushtaq, actually played in a Test match aged 15 years 124 days at Lahore. He had made his first-class debut at 13 years 41 days making 87 and taking five for 28. He bowled his leg-spin and googlies for Northamptonshire and Shropshire. The fourth brother, Sadiq, made his debut in Hanif’s last Test and went on to play in 35 Tests. He made 91 in this one and 97 here at Headingley in 1978. A fifth brother, Raees, played for Karachi but did not play in Tests. Hanif’s son Shoaib played 45 times for his country and appeared at Headingley in 1987.
Yorkshire was well represented in this 1971 game. Illingworth had just returned from his successful Ashes tour of Australia in the winter. Boycott was batting superbly at this time and Richard Hutton also played here. D’Oliveira was now an established England player. He had come from Cape Town, initially with the assistance of John Arlott to play at Middleton in the Central Lancashire League. He joined Worcestershire in 1964, first played for England in 1966, made an excellent 158 in the fifth Ashes Test of 1968 but was left out of the original touring side to go to South Africa. He was belatedly chosen after the withdrawal of Tom Cartwright and this brought about the cancellation of the tour. D’Oliveira behaved impeccably throughout this controversy and became an indispensable all-rounder in the England team.
1h2. 982
August 26, 27, 28, 30, 31, 1982 at Headingley: Pakistan 275 (Imran Khan 67, Mudassar Nazar 65, Javed Miandad 54, IT Botham 4-70) & 199 (Javed Miandad 52, IT Botham 5-74); England 256 (DI Gower 74, IT Botham 57, Imran Khan 5-49) & 219-7 (G Fowler 86, Mudassar Nazar 4-55). England won by three wickets.*
This was a closely-contested match that England won by three wickets, after a remarkable collapse, mainly thanks to Graeme Fowler. The visitors batted first against an attack comprising Ian Botham, Bob Willis and Robin Jackman a year after the famous victory over Australia here. Pakistan made 275 with sixties from their captain, Imran Khan, and Mudassar Nazar. Botham and Willis took seven of the wickets to fall and Robin Jackman bowled for four hours 35 minutes broken only by lunch and tea. David Gower hit 74 as England finished 19 behind. Botham seemed about to emulate 1981 until brilliantly caught by substitute Haroon Rashid for 57. Another substitute who actually played was Ehtesham-ud-din from Daisy Hill in the Bolton League as three fast bowlers were injured but he also broke down with a pulled muscle. Pakistan made 199 leaving England 219 to win. Fowler led the way with 86 as England reached 168 for two. Then Mudassar, replacing Ehtesham, took three wickets and Imran two. The batsmen had rejected an offer of bad light but just managed to survive until next morning and a three-wicket win.
Fowler and Vic Marks both made their Test debuts here at Headingley. Fowler came from Accrington and played for Lancashire and 21 times for England. Most notably he made 201 at Madras (now Chennai) when he batted for nine hours. He also achieved a unique distinction when he scored two centuries in a match against Warwickshire at Southport batting on both occasions with a runner having strained his thigh fielding on the first day. Foxy, as he was known, went on to Durham and to coach at the University. He set up a Centre of Excellence there. He has written about his experiences with depression in his book Absolutely Foxed.
Vic Marks was an off-spinning all-rounder with Somerset where he was born on a farm at Middle Chinnock. He played in six Tests for England. He went to Oxford where he played alongside Imran Khan and Chris Tavaré and captained Oxford in 1976 and 1977. He played more ODIs than Test matches and was a popular player described in Wisden by a colleague as “a mild, nervy, self-deprecating farm boy with an Oxford degree and no enemies.” He is now cricket correspondent of The Guardian and The Observer and a fair-minded contributor to Test Match Special.
1987
July 2, 3, 4, 6, 1987 at Headingley: England 136 (DJ Capel 53) & 199 (DI Gower 55, Imran Khan 7-40); Pakistan 353 (Salim Malik 99, Ijaz Ahmed 50, NA Foster 8-107). Pakistan won by an innings and 18 runs.
In 1987 Pakistan won for the first time in a Test Match at Headingley and convincingly by an innings and 18 runs. (It remains their only win in a Headingley Test.) As the other four Tests were drawn they won the series. England made only 135 in their first innings having been 31 for five. They were facing Imran Khan and Wasim Akram, and Moshin Kamal took the last three wickets. Only David Capel, on his Test debut, batting at number seven and expecting to keep his feet up before lunch, exceeded fifty. Pakistan responded with 353 and Salim Malik made 99 – the first such score in a Headingley Test. Whilst his innings was careful and responsible, it ended when he hit a full toss to cover. Ijaz Ahmed and Wasim Akram hit hard on Saturday morning (day three) to extend the lead to 217. Neil Foster took eight for 107. The rest of Saturday’s play consisted of England losing seven wickets. There was an excellent spell of bowling from Imran who had taken seven for 40 by the time the innings had finished two days later. (Sunday was a rest day.)
Imran Khan was born in Lahore in 1952. He came on the 1971 tour and made his Test debut at Edgbaston. He stayed in England to go to Worcester Royal Grammar School and then to Keble College, Oxford. He was an outstanding all-round cricketer. A tall fast bowler with a beautiful action, he took 362 Test wickets and scored 3,807 runs. He played for Worcestershire and Sussex and as captain of Pakistan led his country to its first victory in the World Cup.
He is now the leader of the Tehreek-e-Insaf political party or The Movement for Justice, which he founded. He has been elected to the National Assembly and heads a coalition government in his local province in NW Pakistan. In addition he has raised money to establish cancer hospitals in Lahore and Peshawar and has been made an Honorary Fellow of the Royal College of Physicians. He was chancellor of Bradford University between 2005 and 2014. In a notable cricketing family, Imran’s cousins are Majid Khan and Javed Burki.
1992
July 23, 24, 25, 26, 1992 at Headingley: Pakistan 197 (Salim Malik 82) & 221 (Salim Malik 84*, Rameez Raja 63, NA Mallender 5-50); England 320 (GA Gooch 135, MA Atherton 76, Waqar Younis 5-117) & 99-4. England won by six wickets.*
In 1992 Graham Gooch played his second outstanding innings in a Headingley Test, the other having come in the previous year. Pakistan made 197 with Salim Malik 82 not out as Neil Mallender, Derek Pringle, Chris Lewis and Tim Munton shared the wickets. Wisden summarises Gooch’s contribution: “England’s captain’s positive thinking tailored a deliberately mis-shapen team to suit a Headingley pitch which lived up to every word of its wicked reputation! His 135 was the pivotal innings of another absorbing Test and his phlegmatic second innings 37 provided England with an essential heat-shield in a feverish final session.”
It was the movement off the seam exploited by Mallender, on debut, and his fellow seamers that took all of the wickets except for the resolute Salim Malik. The second day was sunny and clear and Gooch and Atherton put on 168. Unluckily for Pakistan it was cloudy again on the third day. Gooch batted until lunch for a seven-hour 135 but wickets were falling around him and nine men perished for 50 runs. Waqar Younis got the ball to swing and took five for 13 in 38 balls. When Pakistan batted again Salim Malik made 84 not out and his two undefeated innings were worthy of comparison with Gooch. Mallender, in the first of only two Test Matches, had match figures of eight for 122. England’s target of 99 was no fait accompli and Gooch again led the way. The match ended in rancour as Pakistan believed, probably justifiably, that Gooch should have been given run out.
SOME RECORDS
Results
Played 81, England won 24, lost 20 and drew 37.
At Headingley (1962-2006): Played 9, England won 5, lost 1 drew 3.
Highest innings totals
England 598-9dec Abu Dhabi 2015/16
At home 589-8dec Old Trafford 2016
Pakistan 708 The Oval 1987
At home 636-8dec Lahore 2005/06
At Headingley Pakistan 538 2006
England 515 2006
Lowest innings totals
England 72 Abu Dhabi 2011/12
At home 130 The Oval 1954
Pakistan 72 Edgbaston 2010
At home 99 Dubai 2011/12
At Headingley Pakistan 131 1962
England 136 1987
Highest individual innings
England 278 DCS Compton Trent Bridge 1954
Away 263 AN Cook Abu Dhabi 2015/16
Pakistan 274 Zaheer Abbas Edgbaston 1971
At home 245 Shoaib Malik Abu Dhabi 2015/16
At Headingley Pakistan 192 Mohammad Yousuf 2006
England 170 AJ Stewart 1996
Record wicket partnerships
Pak 363 (3rd) Younus Khan (173) & Mohammad Yousuf (192) Headingley 2006
Eng 332 (8th) IJL Trott (184) & SCJ Broad (169) Lord’s 2010
NOTES: England’s highest partnership at Headingley is 168 for the first wickets between GA Gooch (135) & MA Atherton (76) in 1992.
The stand between Younus Khan and Mohammad Yousuf is the highest third-wicket stand in all Headingley Tests.
Best bowling in an innings
England 8-34 IT Botham Lord’s 1978
Away 7-66 PH Edmonds Karachi 1977/78
At Headingley 8-107 NA Foster 1987
Pakistan 9-56 Abdul Qadir Lahore 1987/88
Away 7-40 Imran Khan Headingley 1987
Best bowling in a match
England 13-71 (5-20) & 8-51) DL Underwood Lord’s 1974
Away 11-83 (6-65 & 5-18) NGB Cook Karachi 1983/84
Pakistan 13-101 (9-56 & 4-45) Abdul Qadir Lahore 1987/88
Away 12-99 (6-53 & 6-46) Fazal Mahmood The Oval 1954
At Headingley Pakistan 10-77 (3-37 & 7-40) Imran Khan 1987
England 8-107 (8-107) NA Foster 1987
Most wicket-keeping dismissals in an innings
5 (all ct) Wasim Bari Pakistan Headingley 1971
5 (all ct) Sarfraz Ahmed Pakistan Dubai 2015/16
5 (all ct) Sarfraz Ahmed Pakistan Edgbaston 2016
Most wicket-keeping dismissals in a match
8 (all ct) Wasim Bari Pakistan 1971
8 (all ct) Kamran Akmal Pakistan The Oval 2010
NOTE: The best at Headingley is seven dismissals (6 ct, 1 st) by APE Knott for England in 1971
Most catches in an innings by a fielder
4 on eight occasions including two at Headingley, both for England: by AW Greig in 1974 and by GA Hick in 1992.
Most catches in a match by a fielder
6 AW Greig England Headingley 1974
6 GA Hick England Headingley 1992
A century and five wickets in an innings in the same match
IT Botham 108; 0-17 & 8-34 England Lord’s 1978
