It’s finally happening. After a 24-year hiatus, Australia are all set to play in Pakistan with the first Test of a three-match series getting underway in Rawalpindi on March 4.
Though Australia have not won a Test series in Asia since 2011 when they beat Sri Lanka 1-0, newly-anointed skipper Pat Cummins and Company can take inspiration from the team’s last tour of Pakistan in 1998. Back then, under the leadership of Mark ‘Tubby’ Taylor, the men from Down Under overcame all odds to register a historic 1-0 series win in Pakistan.
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Let us, therefore, take a trip down memory lane and relive a riveting battle that was witnessed between two equally-matched sides in October 1998. On a personal front, I remember the series quite vividly, for I had started following the game of cricket as a young kid only a year ago. In those days, I had no access to satellite TV, but I always kept abreast of happenings from the cricket world through newspapers and a Hindi magazine called ‘Cricket Samrat’.
SIMILAR BUILD-UP
Just as the current series is being dubbed an acid test for Australian cricketers whose recent records in Asia have been abysmal, coming into the 1998-99 series, Mark Taylor’s team had their backs to the wall.
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The last time Australia had won a Test series on the soil of Pakistan was way back in 1959-60. Since then, they had lost four series while one had ended in a draw. To make matters worse, they were going into the contest without their talismanic leggie, Shane Warne.
Against all odds, though, Australia produced a clinical display in the first Test in Rawalpindi, outmuscling the hosts by an innings and 99 runs to take a 1-0 lead that turned out to be decisive in the end.
In the absence of Warne, Stuart MacGill rose to the occasion, claiming a fifer in the first innings to help the visitors restrict the home team to 345. The touring side then went on to amass a mammoth 513 with Steve Waugh (157) and Michael Slater (108) scoring hundreds.
Pakistan were rolled over for a paltry 145 in the second innings with MacGill bagging a four-for to emerge as the pick of the bowlers once again.
SELF-EFFACING TAYLOR
The second Test in Peshawar was a high-scoring affair that finished as a drab draw. However, the match is best remembered for Mark Taylor’s epic unbeaten 334 and his decision to declare in honour of Sir Donald Bradman whose highest score also read 334.
The kind of flow he was in on that day, Brian Lara’s then world record of 375 didn’t look too far, but the Australian skipper chose not to go past Bradman’s best.
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The two sides were involved in another draw in Karachi in the third and last Test. The Karachi match, though, saw an even contest between the bat and the ball with both teams folding under 300 in their first outings.
In their second innings, Australia racked up 390 to set Pakistan a target of 419, but the home side never looked like getting close to the mark and were at 262/5 when stumps were drawn on Day Five. The draw delivered Australia their first Test series win in Pakistan after nearly 40 years.
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By sheer coincidence, this time too Australia are beginning their Test series against Pakistan in Rawalpindi — a ground where they had achieved a historic win in 1998. Can Pat Cummins and his men repeat the history in the coming days? For the answer, we have to stay tuned to the Test match starting on Friday.
PS: Apart from the enthralling contest between the two teams in the Test series, I also remember an ODI from that tour in which Australia chased down 316 in 48.5 overs with Ricky Ponting and Adam Gilchrist slamming scintillating tons. In those days, chasing anything over 300 was a rarity, and therefore, that game remains etched in my memory to date.
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(Ankit Kumar Singh is a journalist-turned-media academician. Views are personal)
