ACS Overseas First-Class Annual 2019

329 Pakistan in 2018/19 It does not seem so very long ago – it was actually August 2016 – that Pakistan sat proudly but briefly on top of the ICC Test ranking table. But since then the team had slid to seventh place by the end of the 2018 season and retention of this position twelve months later reflected not so much the side’s Test performances, which remained poor, as the size of the gap that separated Pakistan from eighth-placed West Indies. Pakistan began 2018/19 by hosting Australia in the UAE. It was disappointing that a resolute century by Usman Khawaja enabled the visitors to force a draw in the first Test but they could not escape a heavy defeat in the second. So this was a satisfactory start for Pakistan but no more than that, for do they not expect to beat almost everyone in the Emirates? Perhaps; but if so, the result of the next rubber must have come as a severe shock as New Zealand visited for three Tests and went home with a famous 2-1 victory after an outstanding rubber full of drama. In the first Test Pakistan, chasing a modest target of 176, must have felt victory was assured when they reached 130-3 or even 154-5. But wickets kept tumbling, mostly to Ajaz Patel, and in a desperate finish New Zealand were home by 4 runs. But in the first innings of the second Test the Kiwis underwent an even more dramatic collapse from 50-0 to 90 all out en route to an innings defeat (Yasir Shah 8-41 in the first innings and 14-184 in the match). So it was all square going into the final Test, a fine, fluctuating contest in which Pakistan seemed to have the upper hand before falling away in the later stages to lose by 123 runs. Failure in the Emirates can hardly have left the side in a positive frame of mind for the daunting prospect of three Tests in South Africa; and while the tourists had their moments, particularly during the closely-contested first Test, the home side always had something to spare and ran out as 3-0 winners. Pakistan’s A side played four matches, all at ‘home’ in the Emirates. They struggled in a drawn game against the Australian tourists before having the better of two draws against New Zealand A, but the only definite result was when they came from behind to secure a four-wicket win against England Lions. Owing to the precarious security situation in Pakistan, other national teams remain understandably unwilling to tour and so the first-class programme consisted entirely of the Quaid-e-Azam Trophy. This was again contested in an unaltered format (but see below for radical changes planned for 2019/20). However, one familiar name was missing: one of Pakistan’s major financial institutions, United Bank, after suffering a drastic fall in profits, was forced to economize on its non-banking activities and therefore disbanded its eponymous team, since 1975/76 a fixture of the Pakistan cricketing scene. The effect of this was a reprieve for Federally Administered Tribal Areas (FATA), who would otherwise have been relegated. So only Faisalabad dropped out, while Multan and Zarai Taraqiati Bank were promoted. In recent years the QeA has been dominated by Sui Northern Gas Pipelines, whose win last year was their third in four seasons. During the initial stages of the Trophy they seemed intent on making it four out of five, powering their way to the top of Pool A with four wins from their seven matches, three of them by an innings. Their counterparts, Sui Southern Gas Corporation, were equally successful in Pool B, with an almost identical record from the first stage of the competition. The Pool tables were notable for the stronger-than-usual performances of the regional teams, evidence perhaps that the PCB’s draft system was being successful in its aim of allowing them to compete on a more equal footing against the better-resourced departmental sides. Meanwhile the Bank sides, so often dominant, seemed to mourn the loss of their United brethren and produced mediocre results, at least at the Pool stage.