A brief history of New Zealand Test series against Pakistan – part two 1980 to the present day
Jamie Alter24-Jun-2008
John Reid: 565 runs in six Tests against Pakistan in 1984-85 © Getty Images
1984
New Zealand’s fifth tour to Pakistan ended in a 2-0 defeat. The opening Test in Lahore was a low-scoring affair that went into the fifth day, when the hosts chased down a meagre target of 178 with six wickets standing. The win was set up by some tidy spin bowling from Iqbal Qasim, who took 8 for 106 in the match, and there were only two fifties, both to John Wright and Martin Crowe. There weren’t many runs in Hyderabad either, with John Reid’s 106 forming most of New Zealand’s 267 after they chose to bat and struggled against Abdul Qadir. Stephen Boock’s slow left-arm spin accounted for seven Pakistan batsmen as New Zealand gained a 37-run lead, but a poor second-innings total of 189 – again, Qasim the star with 5 for 78 – meant Pakistan needed 227 to win. Hundreds from Mudassar Nazar and Javed Miandad, after a rest day, sealed a seven-wicket win. The dead rubber was just that, Boock taking six wickets to finish with 17 for the trip and Wright and Saleem Malik scoring hundreds, Reid getting 97, and Qasim adding four more wickets to his fine series.
Pakistan 2, New Zealand 0, Drawn 1
ODIs: Pakistan 3, New Zealand 11985
New Zealand hosted Pakistan a few weeks later and returned the 2-0 scoreline. Reid continued from where he left off in Pakistan with a hundred in a draw in Wellington and an unbeaten 158 helped New Zealand gain momentum with an innings-and-99-run win at Eden Park, aided by Richard Hadlee and Lance Cairns’ crucial roles in keeping Pakistan to below 184 in both innings. Both sides dropped their spinners for the decider in Dunedin and Brendon Bracewell was recalled after five years without a Test. Miandad, during his 79, became the youngest player ever to reach 5,000 Test runs but a Hadlee-enduced collapse meant Pakistan settled for 274. Wasim Akram grabbed five to keep the hosts to 220 before Pakistan failed in the second innings, leaving New Zealand 278 to get. Akram left them 23 for 4, moving the ball plenty off the seam, but Crowe and Jeremy Coney’s 157-run stand bailed New Zealand out. Crowe fell for 84 as Akram took five more and Coney’s second Test hundred and a career-best 21 from Ewen Chatfield clinched a two-wicket win.
New Zealand 2, Pakistan 0, Drawn 1
ODIs: New Zealand 3, Pakistan 0, No result 11989
Heavy sweeping rain caused the first Test in Dunedin to be called off on the third day and a one-off ODI was played on day four, which New Zealand won. A numbingly dull draw followed in Wellington, with New Zealand batting painstakingly slow – Crowe’s tenth hundred consumed 592 minutes and the team’s 447 in 708 – and Shoaib Mohammad gave comatose a new definition with the sixth-longest innings in Test history, a 720-minute, 516-ball 163. After Imran Khan, who biffed a fine half-century, declared nine runs behind on the fifth morning Salim Jaffer ran through New Zealand but a draw was the only possible result.
New Zealand 0, Pakistan 0, Drawn 1, No result 1
ODIs: New Zealand 4, Pakistan 11990
Not a memorable tour of Pakistan, thanks to Shoaib and Waqar. The famed pair of Waqar and Wasim decimated New Zealand on a seaming Karachi pitch, dismissing them for less than 200 twice in between a lacklustre touring attack allowing Pakistan 433 for 6. Shoaib was slightly quicker in scoring an unbeaten 203, coincidentally equalling his father Hanif Mohammad’s personal best against New Zealand. Trailing by 237, New Zealand again faltered against Wasim and Waqar, though Crowe’s 68 not-out took play into day five. Shoaib was the star with the bat in Lahore with 105, his fourth hundred against New Zealand in consecutive innings, and an unbeaten 42 in a nine-wicket win, while a revved-up Waqar took ten in a match for the first time, his 7 for 86 wrecking the tourists in the second innings on another green top. Crowe dug deep for an unbeaten 108 after New Zealand needed 144 to avert a consecutive innings defeat but Pakistan wrapped up the series easily. New Zealand finally opted to field in encouraging Faisalabad conditions and Chris Pringle’s seven bowled Pakistan out for 102, their lowest total against New Zealand. Waqar, however, took seven of his own to keep the lead to 115. It was then over to that man Shoaib again, who passed 2,000 runs during his 142, and despite Pringle becoming the first New Zealander to take ten or more wickets in a Test against Pakistan, New Zealand failed to chase 243. With 12 wickets in the match, one needn’t look further than Waqar for Man of the Match.
Pakistan 3, New Zealand 0
ODIs: Pakistan 3, New Zealand 01993
A one-off Test in Hamilton proved gripping and heart-aching for the hosts. Chasing 127 to win with two days to go, after good showings from Danny Morrison and Murphy Su’a, New Zealand slipped from 39 for 3 overnight to 93 all-out thanks to Messrs. Wasim and Waqar. Both bowled with fire – Waqar passing 100 wickets in 20 Tests – and seized seven wickets for just 28. With the calm Wright out with an injured finger, Ken Rutherford stepped up to captain but failed to rally his troops, with only Mark Greatbatch’s hundred of any significance in the match.
Pakistan 1, New Zealand 0
ODIs: New Zealand 2, Pakistan 11994
Wasim and Waqar – crossing 200 and 150 Test wickets respectively – dominated the first Test in Auckland while Simon Doull impressed with a career-best 7 for 114. New Zealand’s batting failed to cope with the two W’s pace on a two-faced pitch and Pakistan took the opener by five wickets. A truer pitch in Wellington, and some wayward New Zealand bowling, allowed Pakistan rack up 548 for 5, with as hundreds from Saeed Anwar, Malik and Inzamam-ul-Haq, after which Wasim took seven to round off another innings victory. New Zealand came back with a five-wicket win in Christchurch, after being bowled out for 200 in reply to Pakistan’s 344, with Morrison taking eight and centurions Bryan Young and Shane Thomson securing their highest-ever fourth-innings total to win a Test.
Pakistan 2, New Zealand 1
ODIs: Pakistan 3, New Zealand 1, Tied 11995
Another one-off Test in New Zealand, and another win for Pakistan. Mushtaq Ahmed, with ten wickets in a Test for the first time, and Ijaz Ahmed, with his second hundred in successive games, shone. It wasn’t all smooth sailing for the visitors, who collapsed from 135 for 0 to 208, but Wasim picked up 5 for 10 in 15 overs as New Zealand lost six wickets for 65. Pakistan eased past a 78-run deficit thanks to Ijaz’s 103 and 82 from Inzamam and with the tail coming good they posted 434. New Zealand were never expected to really chase down 357 but started well, only for Mushtaq to spin a web with 7 for 56, his best Test figures.
Pakistan 1, New Zealand 0
ODIs: Pakistan 2, New Zealand 21996
Doull was instrumental in New Zealand’s first Test win in two years, taking 8 for 85 in the first Test in Lahore, only the second time they had won in Pakistan. It was a sweet comeback after New Zealand’s batting was rattled by Waqar and Mushtaq in the first innings and they owed plenty to Doull and Chris Cairns’ blazing 93 when they were 101 for 5 in the second. Mushtaq took ten in the match and Mohammad Wasim, 19 and on debut, delayed the victory with an unbeaten century, but Doull walked away with the spoils. All this in a match in which there were 15 lbws given. Pakistan levelled the series thanks to another debutant, the pacy Mohammad Zahid, in a match which lasted just 258.4 overs. Sunlight, bad light and drizzle held up play at random junctures but it was Zahid, the first Pakistani to take ten wickets on debut, who caused the most damage. He and Mushtaq shared ten to dismiss New Zealand for 249, Pakistan made 430, and Zahid’s seven wrapped up an innings-and-13-run win.
Pakistan 1, New Zealand 1
ODIs: Pakistan 2, New Zealand 1
Floppy-haired wonder: Mohammad Sami enjoyed two tours to New Zealand, once nearly clocking 96 mph and regularly having the hosts hopping © Getty Images
2001
Another debutant fast bowler, Mohammad Sami, announced his arrival in spectacular manner to give Pakistan the first Test in Auckland by 299 runs – this despite the absence of Wasim and Shoaib Akhtar. It was their ninth victory over New Zealand in 11 matches, and Sami was quick and lethal: needing 326 to win, the hosts lost their last eight wickets for just ten runs. Sir Richard Hadlee, the chairman of selectors, made four changes to the squad for the second Test and New Zealand dominated a high-scoring draw in front of an empty Jade Stadium. On the most docile of tracks, Matthew Sinclair and Yousuf Youhana scored doubles, and there were hundreds for Inzamam and Saqlain Mushtaq, who batted over seven hours for his maiden effort. New Zealand drew the series in style, their new-ball operators rolling Pakistan over for 104 before a mountain of runs – this was the match in which Craig McMillan hit Younis Khan’s single over for 444464 – forced them to quake in the second innings. The margin of victory was an innings and 185-runs, New Zealand’s largest. With days two and three washed out, the Test lasted hardly two six sessions.
Pakistan 1, New Zealand 1, Drawn 1
ODIs: New Zealand 3, Pakistan 22002
This will always be remembered as the tour New Zealand pulled out of after a bomb exploded outside their hotel in Karachi. But before that, Pakistan recorded the fifth-biggest victory in Test cricket, in three days, thanks to Inzamam’s triple-century and Akhtar’s devastating 6 for 11. Imran Nazir, recalled for his first Test in 17 months, partnered Inzamam for 204 and the big man from Multan kept on ticking: dropped on 110, he powered past his second double, at times near a run a ball, and was last out for 329. Akhtar, who helped add a ninth-wicket record 78 for Pakistan against New Zealand, then took centre stage with 4 for 25 – all bowled – before returning from a sprained ankle take out two more. New Zealand collapsed from 58 for 2 to 73, followed-on 570 behind, and with Akhtar absent Danish Kaneria stepped up with 5 for 110; the last seven wickets fell for 60 in 20 overs.
Pakistan 1, New Zealand 0
ODIs: Pakistan 3, New Zealand 02003
Inzamam’s decision to bowl in Hamilton didn’t go do well, as New Zealand piled up 563 – Stephen Fleming made 192, Daniel Vettori got his maiden Test hundred, and Sami took five more with Akhtar out through injury. Moin Khan sped to a hundred in two hours, adding 152 for the seventh wicket with Sami (25), and after rain delayed the final day’s play until lunch the end looked rather dull. Sami had other ideas, however. Running in against the breeze, he reduced New Zealand to 42 for 5 and threatened further damage, but Jacob Oram batted like a rock to secure a draw when bad light was offered with the score 96 for 8. The second and final Test was no less exhilarating what with Akhtar’s sensation return, a stellar effort from Ian Butler, and some serious hustling by Inzamam. Oram and Mark Richardson helped their side to 366 around five wickets from Akhtar before Butler nailed five in five overs and eventually finished with 6 for 46. From 168 for 4, Pakistan folded for 196. Ahead by 265, New Zealand proceeded to outstandingly collapse to 103 in front of Akhtar’s 6 for 30, including 4 for 16 on day four. Set 274 to win Pakistan coasted along with Youhana and Inzamam but, with only 28 left to get, Inzamam opted not to claim the extra half hour available. Poor weather was forecast for the final day but thankfully for Inzamam, it waited long enough for a mad dash towards victory the next morning.
Pakistan 1, New Zealand 0