Ahead of this week’s first Test, which starts on Thursday, The Cricketer charts 10 of the most memorable moments from Test matches between England and Pakistan in the UK
Test matches between England and Pakistan in the United Kingdom are rarely dull affairs and often have added spice and tension within them.
Throughout the years, meetings of the two on these shores have brought drama at every turn.
Ahead of this week’s first Test, which starts on Thursday, The Cricketer charts 10 of the most memorable moments from Test matches between England and Pakistan in this country.
In the first Test of the wonderfully competitive 2016 series, Pakistan pulled off a brilliant 75-run win as Misbah-ul-Haq became the oldest Test captain to score a century at the ripe old age of 42.
While these achievements were impressive, the celebrations for both were even more eye-catching as first Misbah himself and then the whole team celebrated the respective moments by performing a series of press-ups.
Displaying no arrogance, these unique and entertaining celebrations displayed the spirit of a Pakistan side that reached the heady heights of No.1 in the world rankings with their 2-2 series draw in England.
Press-ups at Lord's
The 2010 fourth Test between England and Pakistan at Lord’s will forever be remembered but not for the cricket. The hosts inflicted Pakistan’s worst five-day defeat, by an innings and 225 runs, but it was the controversy surrounding two massive no-balls delivered by Mohammad Amir and Mohammad Asif, in the third and 10th overs of England’s first innings, that made the headlines and raised suspicions.
Sure enough, a News of the World investigation later outlined that the balls had been bowled deliberately in a spot-fixing attempts as bookmaker Mazhar Majeed had bribed Amir, Asif and Salman Butt to collude in this way.
The incident was a dark day for the game and all four involved were subsequently given prison sentences, ranging from six to 32 months in length.
The Lord’s Test was also a bittersweet moment for Stuart Broad. In a remarkable show of batting, England’s second highest-wicket taker of all time in Tests scored a sumptuous career-best 169 in a world record eighth-wicket stand of 332 alongside Jonathan Trott, who hit 184 himself.
Such was the impressive nature of his innings that it seemed at the time that England had found their answer to the succession of Andrew Flintoff as the country’s all-round star.
For Broad, though, the moment is tough to look back on due to the actions of the four Pakistani players involved in spot-fixing. Understandably, there is still anger there at one of Broad’s best career moments being overshadowed in such a way.
Look back a few years and you’ll find a rather more bizarre incident between the two countries as the first, and only, ever forfeited Test occurred during day four of the fourth meeting in south London.
After the match umpires, Darrell Hair and Billy Doctrove, deemed that Pakistan had been ball-tampering and so awarded five penalty runs to England while letting them also have a replacement ball, Pakistan failed to take to the field in protest after the tea break. The umpires waited on the pitch for 20 minutes before visiting the Pakistan dressing room to ask what was going on.
When Hair and Doctrove received inconclusive answers as to questions on whether they would be returning to the field, they went back out, whipped the bails off and declared the Test a forfeit in the hosts favour according to Law 21.
Mohammed Amir
Following the 1992 World Cup on home soil, Pakistan were the touring visitors and the Test series that followed provided many memorable moments, one of which involved Somerset bowler Neil Mallander.
Specialising in seaming right-arm medium deliveries, Mallander was surprisingly called up for the first Test against Pakistan at Headingley, a decision seen as a ‘horses for courses’ move.
Exploiting the swing on offer, ‘Ghostie’ took 5-50 in the first innings and eight wickets in the match, the best by an England debutant for nine years, as he seized his big moment at the age of 30. Unfortunately, he only played one more Test.
From the 10th over of the innings to the end of play, Pakistan spinner Mushtaq Ahmed bowled a marathon spell unchanged during the fifth day of the third Test at The Oval in 1996 to trigger an England collapse as the visitors claimed a brilliant nine wicket win.
The hosts final eight wickets fell for 76 runs in 27 overs as Mushtaq’s leg-spinning guile around the wicket bamboozled the England side, leaving the bowler with 6-78 from 37 overs for the innings.
In the 1974 series, a 0-0 draw, the second Test at Lord’s was a controversial affair. When rain halted Pakistan’s first innings at 51 without loss, under the regulations of the time, the pitch was uncovered and the conditions turned into a nightmare for the tourists as they slumped to 130 for nine declared.
When Pakistan batted again for a second time round, after more heavy downpours the day before, they were destroyed by Derek Underwood on a drying pitch, albeit the match ended in a draw after further downpours.
The Pakistan team were aggrieved as experimental covers, which inflated with hot air, proved inadequate in keeping the water out.
Umpire Daryl Hair inspects the ball
In a five-match Test series which saw only one result, Pakistan claimed an historic first Test series victory over England in England after a dominant victory in the third Test at Headingley, winning by an innings and 18 runs.
England were skittled twice in the match as, in between, 99 from Saleem Malik provided the platform for a respectable score of 353 in their one and only innings.
Imran Khan, taking 7-40, teared through the hosts who simply had no answer.
Lord’s 1978. Second Test and already 1-0 up, England demolished the touring Pakistanis to secure a dominant series win with a game to spare and it was largely down to the superb Ian Botham that they did so at the Home of Cricket.
With his side teetering at 134 for five, Botham did as Botham does as a simply brilliant 108 at almost a run-a-ball moved England to a total of 364.
Against a hapless visiting batting line-up, ‘Beefy’ then returned the best bowling figures of his career in an innings as he took 8-34 to secure an innings victory.
The 1967 series in England was a relatively straightforward one for the hosts as they completed a 2-0 series victory with two comprehensive results.
One moment lived long in the memory though as Pakistan’s Asif Iqbal and Intikhab Alam recorded the highest ninth-wicket partnership of all time, 190, with Iqbal making a superb 146 in the face of English dominance.
In a measure of how impressive the feat was, the record then stood for the next thirty years before Mark Boucher and Pat Symcox scored 195 for their ninth-wicket against Pakistan at Johannesburg in 1998.
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