ACS Overseas First-Class Annual 2015

Pakistan in 2014/15 Pakistan won three and drew one of their four Test series in 2014/15 and 2015, showing a far more consistent face than in recent years. Their greatest strength was in their batting: eight batsmen made at least one century over their ten Tests, including maiden Test double-centuries from Mohammad Hafeez and Azhar Ali. Meanwhile the bowling managed to withstand the loss of key off-spinner Saeed Ajmal and the more occasional off-spin of Mohammad Hafeez, both of whom were banned when their actions were declared illegal. Into their places stepped 35-year-old slow left-armer Zulfiqar Babar (36 wickets in eight Tests) and 28-year-old debutant leg-spinner Yasir Shah, who reached 50 wickets in his ninth Test, and in all took 61 wickets in the ten Tests of 2014/15 and 2015. In October Pakistan secured their first series win over Australia since 1994/95, winning the two matches of the ‘home’ series in the UAE by margins of 221 and 356 runs. This was immediately followed by a three-match home series against New Zealand, in which the first game followed the same pattern - a win for Pakistan by 248 runs. But a draw and an innings defeat in the remaining Tests demonstrated the continuing revival in New Zealand’s fortunes, and marked a pause in the revival of Pakistan’s. Things got back on course in a two-match series in Bangladesh in April/May 2015, in which a high-scoring draw was followed by another big Pakistan win, this time by 328 runs. A 2-1 victory in Sri Lanka then maintained Pakistan’s progress, the series being clinched with a score of 382-3 in the fourth innings of the decisive Third Test. Over this period, Pakistan’s place in the ICC rankings moved up and down between third and sixth, depending on their own results and those of other teams in the tightly-packed upper-middle order of the table. At the end of the 2015 season they were in fourth spot, two places higher than 12 months previously. Inevitably they may soon lose the experience of some of their longer-established Test players, but it appears that there is an underlying strength in their resources of both batting and bowling that should stand them in good stead to maintain this position into the future. Once again, first-class cricket in Pakistan itself was limited to domestic matches. The Quaid-e-Azam Trophy was the only first-class competition to be contested, and under yet another new set-up the 26 competing teams were divided into a Gold League (comprising the 12 leading departmental and regional sides from 2013/14) and a Silver League (comprising all the other first-class sides from 2013/14, together with a side representing the Sui Southern Gas Corporation, who returned to first-class status for the first time since 2009/10). The regional teams played for the first time at first-class level under the ‘animal’ names that they had used in limited-overs matches ever since the introduction of Twenty20 cricket to Pakistan in 2004/05. The two league competitions culminated in finals, both of which followed a similar pattern, with the side batting second securing a substantial first-innings lead which eventually proved decisive in matches that ended as draws. The Gold League winners were Sui Northern Gas Pipelines Ltd, who took the senior title for the third year in a row, while the Silver League champions were Habib Bank. Predictably, it was the departmental teams that fared best under the new format. In a first-class season of 116 matches, only one batsman reached 1000 runs: Naeemuddin of Sui Northerns, who scored 1045 runs at an average of exactly 55. The leading wicket-taker was fast-medium bowler Sohail Khan of Port Qasim Authority, with 64 wickets at 22.09. Islamabad’s wicket-keeper Naeem Anjum set a new all-time record for a Quaid-e-Azam season by making 63 dismissals (62 catches and 1 stumping) in 11 matches. As usual, several notes are appended to scores to avoid confusion between the many namesakes in Pakistan cricket. It was noted last year that as many as four Mohammad Naeems appeared during the season, but this has now been surpassed by the five Mohammad Irfans that featured in 2014/15. (KSW) 245