All Ten: The Ultimate Bowling Feat

276 Hemmings (49.3) had bowled more overs. Rameez Alam made up for his first-innings failure by making 119 not out in Multan’s second innings. However, the home team’s declaration left little time for either side to achieve victory. Babar, on a hat-trick, opened the bowling in Islamabad’s second innings. He failed to get a three-in- three, but he did take two more wickets at a cost of 25 runs. Babar went on to finish the season strongly. In his last two matches, playing for The Rest in the RBS Pentangular Cup, he took seven wickets in an innings against both Karachi Blues and Sui Northern Gas Pipelines Limited. His 96 wickets meant that he finished as the season’s second- highest wicket-taker in the country, just one behind Karachi Blues’ opening bowler Tanvir Ahmed, whilst only Rawalpindi’s Mohammad Rameez (who took eight for 46 against Multan on the same ground a week after Babar’s feat) equalled his tally of five wickets in an innings nine times, and ten in a match three times. Babar spent the following English summer playing for Little Hulton in the Bolton and District Cricket Association. He continued to prosper but with Saeed Ajmal established as the side’s leading spinner, supported by Abdur Rehman, it was difficult to break into the Pakistan team. There were suggestions that had he come from one of the larger cities he might have had greater support among the selectors. Three years later with 93 wickets he was the leading wicket-taker in Pakistan, and the following October he at last made a well-deserved Test debut, against South Africa at the Sheikh Zayed Stadium in Abu Dhabi. (He had actually made his international debut earlier in the year in a T20 match against the West Indies in which he had taken three key wickets, and then hit the last possible ball of the match for a winning six!) Aged nearly 35, and with over 300 first-class wickets to his name, Babar was Pakistan’s fourth–oldest Test debutant. With five wickets, including Hashim Amla, in a match that Pakistan won by seven wickets he did all right. But the next Test a week later was a different affair. First Pakistan were shot out for 99 with Babar, a useful tailend bat, going in at number nine and top scoring with 25 not out. He then took a humble one for 124 as South Africa piled up 517 and having been injured while bowling was unable to bat in Pakistan’s second-innings. A year later, back in the UAE he found conditions to his liking, twice taking five wickets in an innings against Australia, and in November 2015, in his 13th Test, he took his 50th wicket when he dismissed England’s James Taylor caught at slip by Younis Khan. Sadly none had been taken in Pakistan. He was a key figure in Pakistan’s two-nil series victory. He played in all three Tests, and although his figures for the series (nine for 409) were statistically unimpressive, he suffered from several dropped catches. However despite bowling 189 overs in tiring conditions, making him easily the most hard-worked bowler on either side, he conceded just over two runs an over and his captain, Misbah-ul-Haq, later paid tribute to the importance of his role in providing a foil to the more exotic wrist-spinning skills of the attacking Yasir Shah. Babar toured England and Ireland the following summer but was unable to break into the Test team and had to be content with one first-class match Zulfiqar Babar