It was the 1546th Test match in cricket history
Rajneesh Gupta23-May-2001It was the 1546th Test match in cricket history.It was England’s 780th and Pakistan’s 277th Test match.It was the 59th match between these two sides. The record now reads: England 16, Pakistan 9, drawn 34.It was the 38th match between these two sides in England. The record now reads: England 14, Pakistan 7, drawn 17.It was the 11th match between these two sides at Lord’s. The record now reads: England 3, Pakistan 3, drawn 5.Ian Ward (left handed batsman and right arm medium fast bowler) and Ryan Sidebottom (left handed batsman and left arm fast medium bowler) were making their Test debut for England. They became 604th and 605th Test cricketer respectively to represent England.Ryan Sidebottom furnished the tenth instance of an English Test cricketer’s son following his father in Test cricket. His father Arnie Sidebottom had made his solitary appearance against Australia at Trent Bridge in 1985. The father and son pairs who have played for England in Tests in chronological order are: Charles (2) and David (3) Townsend, Fred (1) and Maurice (39) Tate, Joe Hardstaff Snr (5) and Joe Hardstaff Jr. (23), ‘Frank'(5) and George (7) Mann, James (1) and Jim (46) Parks ,Len (79) and Richard (5) Hutton, Colin (114) and Chris (6) Cowdrey, ‘Micky’ (8) and Alec (109) Stewart and Alan (1) and Mark (27) Butcher. There have been three more cases of father and son pairs playing Test cricket but only one of them represented England.Umpires Darrell Hair and Peter Willey were standing in their 38th and 23rd Test match respectively.Waqar Younis was making a comeback as Pakistan’s skipper. He had last captained Pakistan against Zimbabwe at Karachi in 1993-94.Rashid Latif was making a comeback in to Pakistani side after about three years. He had last played for Pakistan against Zimbabwe at Harare in 1997-98.Darren Gough was playing his 50th Test match. He became 45th player from England and 170th player overall to do so.The wicket of Cork in England’s only innings was 50th for Wasim Akram in England. He became first Pakistani and 19th bowler from the opposing sides to do so at English soil. Incidentally Australia’s Dennis Lillee with 96 wickets from 16 matches holds the record for most wickets in a career at English soil.The catch of his Rashid Latif in first innings was 200th for Alec Stewart in his 109th match (including 35 while not keeping wickets). He became seventh player in Test annals to reach this target after two Australians Ian Healy (366) and Rodney Marsh (343), one West Indian Jeff Dujon (267), one fellow countryman Alan Knott (250) and one Pakistani Wasim Bari (201).Darren Gough became the eighth Englishman and 38th bowler in Test history to complete 200 wickets in a Test career when he dismissed Rashid Latif in first innings. The seven other Englishmen who have taken 200 wickets are Ian Botham (383 wickets in 102 Tests), Bob Willis (325 in 90), Fred Trueman (307 in 67), Derek Underwood (297 in 86), Brian Statham (252 in 70), Alec Bedser (236 in 51) and John Snow (202 in 49). By an odd coincidence all eight Englishmen have taken their 200th wicket at home soil.When Alec Stewart (captaining England in place of injured Nasser Hussain) asked Pakistan to follow on, he provided the 85th instance of an English captain enforcing the follow-on over the opponents. It was also the seventh such occasion for England against Pakistan.The wicket of Latif in second innings was the 100th for Gough in matches in England. He became 11th bowler to do so.The bowlers with maximum Test wickets in England are Fred Trueman (229), Ian Botham (226), Bob Willis (176), Alec Bedser (167), Brian Statham (148), Derek Underwood (145), John Snow (140), Jim Laker (135), Tony Lock (104) and Ray Illingworth (102).Saleem Elahi suffered the mortification of failing to score in both innings of the Test. He became sixth Pakistani batsman to bag a pair against England. The others are: Mohammad Ghazali (at Old Trafford in 1954), Imtiaz Ahmed (at Dhaka in 1961-62), Iqbal Qasim (at Lord’s in 1978), Mudassar Nazar (at Edgbaston in 1982) and Aaqib Javed (at Headingley in 1992).Elahi also provided the 24th instance of a Pakistani batsman suffering this fate and 366th instance in all Tests. He, however, became only the fifth Pakistani opening batsman to record this embarrassing feat after Majid Khan (v Australia at Perth in 1978-79), Mudassar Nazar (v England at Edgbaston in 1982), Saeed Anwar (v West Indies at Faisalabad in 1990-91) and Aamir Sohail (v New Zealand at Hamilton in 1992-93).Elahi also provided the 18th instance of an opening batsman recording a pair against England with South Africa’s Louis Tancred being the only one to have done so twice.Stewart’s four catches in the second innings equalled the existing record of most dismissals by a keeper in an innings against Pakistan. John Murray, Alan Knott (on four occasions) and Bruce French are the others to do so for England.The seven catches in the match by Alec Stewart equalled the existing record of most dismissals by a keeper against Pakistan. Alan Knott had made seven dismissals on two occasions – at Trent Bridge in 1967 and at Headingley in 1971.Five Pakistani batsmen Yousuf Youhana, Azhar Mahmood, Younis Khan, Rashid Latif and Waqar Younis achieved the dubious distinction of getting dismissed twice on same day on the fourth day of the match. This, however, is not a record of most batsmen getting out twice on the same day for Pakistan. The record is of six batsmen suffering this misfortune which has been recorded on three occasions – v India at Delhi in 1952-53, v England at Headingley and at The Oval in 1962. The Test record is held by India as nine Indian batsmen were dismissed on the third day against England at Old Trafford in 1952.The victory was England’s 79th by an innings margin – sixth against Pakistan. It was also the 248th instance of a side registering a win by an innings margin. Incidentally England has won most matches in this fashion.The Man of the match award was the second for Andrew Caddick. His only other award had come against South Africa at Durban in 1999-00. Caddick had then shared the award with Gary Kirsten in a drawn game.
