FIrst-Class Matches Pakistan 1980/81 to 1983/84

139 Pakistan in 1982/83 Pakistan’s Test programme in 1982/83 consisted entirely of home matches, as the country hosted a tour by Australia in September and October involving three Tests and three other first-class games, and a longer tour by India extending from late November to early February and including six Tests and four other first-class matches. The international season was one of virtually unalloyed triumph for Pakistan. It began with the demolition of Australia, who failed to adjust to the unfamiliar conditions either with bat or – Geoff Lawson aside – with ball. A sorry catalogue of dropped catches completed Australia’s misery, and the margins of defeat – nine wickets, an innings and 3 runs, and nine wickets again – do not admit of much argument. The home side, by contrast, combined depth in batting with highly effective bowling: Abdul Qadir, with 22 wickets in the three Tests, was outstanding. But Pakistan probably derived even greater satisfaction from victory over neighbours India by three matches to nil, with the other three Tests drawn. The wins were all by conclusive margins, and it would be fair to say that India never had a prospect of victory in any of the drawn games: in fact, across the whole six-match rubber, India took a grand total of exactly one second-innings wicket (in the drawn first Test at Lahore). The home batsmen imposed themselves in no uncertain manner, with first-innings scores in the first four Tests of 485, 452, 652 and 581-3d. In the six Tests Mudassar Nazar struck four centuries and Zaheer Abbas three, while both these batsmen, along with Javed Miandad, averaged in excess of 100. In the fourth Test, Mudassar Nazar and Javed Miandad added 451 for the third Pakistan wicket, equalling the long-standing world record for any Test partnership. India simply had no answer to this huge weight of runs; nor indeed to the outstanding bowler of the rubber, and inspiring captain into the bargain – Imran Khan, who claimed 40 wickets at the astounding average, in conditions generally favourable to batting, of only 13.95. In the light of such a successful international season, it is worth stressing what a formidable force Pakistan amounted to in Test cricket around this time. Had a formal ranking system been in existence, it would, of course, have rated West Indies in first place by a considerable margin; but Pakistan would have ranked highly among the chasing pack. Blessed with an imposing batting line- up and with a varied and effective bowling attack, the team’s record was undeniably an impressive one. It was marred, however, by indifferent performances on tour in England and Australia, by a number of incidents in which the team’s passion and intensity spilled over into acts of serious indiscipline, and by unfortunate intestine disputes, often revolving around the captaincy. The structure of the domestic season was again unaltered, comprising the Quaid-e-Azam Trophy and the PACO Cup. However, the two tours byAustralia and India, involving 16 first-class matches in all, pushed the total for the season to 72, surpassing the previous record of 64 set in 1981/82. The season was played against a backdrop of serious civil unrest, and a number of matches were affected by riots and crowd disturbances. Quaid-e-Azam Trophy: As in previous seasons, the QeA was dominated by departmental sides. The regional teams, Karachi, Rawalpindi and Lahore City, managed only three wins between them, all at the expense of other regional sides, and not surprisingly finished in the bottom three places. Meanwhile at the other end of the table United Bank were worthy winners, going through their entire Trophy programme undefeated and with five wins from their nine matches. A notable feature of the QeA season was the number of draws, despite the fact that, as in previous seasons, each first innings was limited to 85 overs. Of the 45 matches, 22 were drawn compared with only 8 in the previous season. Among them was a game between Lahore City and Habib Bank in which the captains agreed to play for bonus points on the final day after the first three days were washed out; nearly 600 runs were scored that day.