MCC Spirit of Cricket Test Series: Salman Butt’s XI end Australian winning streak – A Trip Down Memory Lane
Headingley, Leeds was the venue where a mammoth record was broken. Mercurial Pakistan was finally able to end Australia’s winning streak in test matches (they won a staggering 13 consecutive test matches against Pakistan). Pakistan ended Australia’s domination over their side today by beating them by three wickets, making this their first test match win against their Down Under rivals in 15 years. Pakistan was exceptionally well in bowling, as they bowled the Australian team on mere 88 in the first innings (in a mere 33.1 overs).
The Aussies side started their winning streak back in 1999 when they beat Pakistan at Gabba by 10 wickets. This was the first match of the three match series. Michael Slater was awarded as Man of the Match for his brilliant 169 in the first innings and unbeaten 40 in the second innings of the match. Damien Fleming took 9 wickets in the match. Saeed Anwar was the highest scorer for Pakistan; he scored 61 in the first innings and 119 in the second innings.
Australia’s 2nd win was in the next match of the series played at Hobart. This match was full of controversies, as the Umpire http://www.senore.com/Cricket/Pakistan-c755.
The 3rd and final match of the series was one-sided in Perth, where the Australians won by an innings and 20 runs. Ricky Ponting was award Man of the Match for his 197 runs innings. McGrath and Kasprowicz both took 7 wickets in the match. Justin Langer was awarded Man of the Series for his brilliant batting throughout the series.
The Australian side decided not to tour Pakistan after the 9/11 attacks, and the home series was postponed. The Australians agreed to play the home series on a neutral venue in 2002. The 1st match was scheduled in Colombo and the other two in Sharjah, UAE. In the first match, Pakistan gave http://www.senore.com/Cricket/Australia-c746 a fight, where they lost by 41 runs. Shane Warne exploited the favouring conditions for spinners and took 11 wickets in the match to become Man of the Match. Shoaib Akhtar of Pakistan took 8 wickets in this match. On the other hand, the other two matches were won easily by Australia. In the 2nd match of the series, the entire Pakistani side collapsed after just scoring 59 runs in the first innings, and they stumbled to an overall 53 in the second innings; they were defeated by an innings and 198 runs. Hayden was awarded man of the match for his 119 runs innings. In the 3rd match of the series, Aussies emerged victorious yet again by defeating the home side by an innings and 20 runs; Shane Warne was awarded Man of the Match as well as Man of the Series award for his marvellous spin bowling.
In 2004-05, Pakistan went on a return visit to Australia and were beaten in all the three test matches by huge margins. In the first match, Australia beat Pakistan at Perth by 491 runs; Justin Langer, for his 191 in the first innings and 97 in the second, was awarded Man of the Match. In the Boxing Day test match at Melbourne, the home side won by 9 wickets. Damien Martyn was named Man of the Match for his 142 runs knock. In the third test match at Sydney, Australia again won by 9 wickets. MacGill was awarded Man of the Match for his 8 wickets. Ricky Ponting scored a double century in this match. This was victory number 9 for the Aussies.
The last four defeats for Pakistan came in late 2009 and 2010. Defeat number 10 was at Melbourne by 130 runs, 11 at Sydney by 36 runs, thanks to some good wicket keeping by Kamran Akmal, and defeat number 12 was at Hobart by 231 runs. The most recent defeat was at Lord’s, where Australia won the match by 150 runs.
The young Pakistani eleven, headed by their new skipper Salman Butt, were not expected to end this feat; on paper this was the youngest side with the youngest captain in Salman Butt. However, the young lads prevailed and won this match after 15 years of submission to a superior Australian side. The last time the men in green emerged victorious was in 1995, when Pakistan defeated Australia in Sydney by 74 runs.
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