Pakistan and Bangladesh are scheduled to play the inaugural match of the second Asian Test Championship at Multan from August 29, 2001. Ironically, after staging the first test match way back in 1980-81 the historical city Multan was ignored as a test venue until now.Multan has staged 12 International matches to date including a Test match and 6 ODIs. However, Pakistan’s record at this venue is not impressive, the only test match played so far ended drawn and out of the ODIs they won two and lost four.Presented below is a brief review of previous International matches played at Multan.1955-56: MCC ‘A’ v Combined Railways and Baluchistan
Donald Carr’s strong MCC ‘A’ team won the match against combined Railways and Baluchistan team by an innings and 23 runs. Tony Lock claimed nine wickets including second hat-trick of the tour.1968: Unofficial Test Match v Commonwealth Team
Pakistan won the first match of the unofficial test series against Commonwealth Team by 105 runs with 35 minutes to spare on the last day. Mohammad Ilyas hammered superb 149 runs for Pakistan. Mushtaq Mohammad chiefly contributed with 104 for the visitors. Setting a target of 237 in three and a quarter hours, spinners Intikhab Alam (5/44) and Zulfiqar (5/49) bowled Pakistan to a convincing victory.1974: Sri Lanka v Pakistan Under-19
Nasir Valika (114) and Qasim Umar (66) were principal scorers for Pakistan Under-19. Duleep Mendis (100) and skipper Anura Teenekoon (68) helped Sri Lanka to amass 431 for 5 declared in a drawn match. Kaluperuma claimed five wickets (5/59).1978: India v Pakistan Universities and Youth XI
Despite teen ager Amin Lakhani’s hat-trick in each innings, a rare feat (only the fifth bowler to do so in first class cricket) Bishen Singh Bedi’s visiting Indian team won the low scoring match by 2 wickets Surinder Amarnath scored 72 and Sunil Gavasakar made 65.1980: Australia v Punjab Governors XI
Allan Border scored 178 on the final day to save the tourists from an embarrassing defeat. Australian’s scored 213 & 302. Governors XI replied with 323 (Azhar Khan 100) and 88 for one. Match drawn.1980-81: Test Match, Pakistan v West Indies
On December 30, 1980 Multan became Pakistan’s sixth Test venue. This rain hit yet historic drawn match is more remembered for the unfortunate incident of brick hurling into the crowd by late West Indies fast bowler Sylvester Clarke. He reacted to oranges being pelted at him while fielding at the boundary. Helped by a tremendous 120 not out by Vivian Richards, the visitors scored 249 in the first innings. Imran Khan claimed 5 for 62. A fighting 57 by skipper Javed Miandad enabled Pakistan to reply with a score of 166. Four quick wickets fell (84/1 to 85/5) for just one run in the visitor’s second innings that gave the home team an outside chance of victory to square the series in this fourth and final test match. However, rain and wet wicket prevented any possibility of play on most of the fourth and entire fifth day. Joel Garner claimed his 100th Test wicket in this Test.1982: Australia v BCCP XI
Allan Border and Geoff Lawson claimed five wickets each in BCCP XI’s first innings. G.Wood (52), Kim Hughes (50), G. Richie (59), Zahid (64) and Taslim Arif (51) all scored fifties. Match ended drawn.1982-83: ODI v India
Zaheer Abbas won the man of the match award after scoring 118 in Pakistna’s total of 263 for 2. Mohsin Khan (117 no) also scored a century. India replied with 226 for 7 (B. Patel 84). Jalaluddin, Zaheer Abbass, and Mudassar Nazar all claimed two wickets each and Pakistan won by 57 runs.1990-91: ODI v West Indies
Pakistan, after scoring 168 for 9 in 40 overs won the low scoring match by 31 runs after the West Indies failed to achieve the target and scored 137 for 7 in 40 overs. Imran Khan scored 46 not out and won the man of the match award. Courtney Walsh claimed 3/28, Ian Bishop took 2/35, Mushtaq Ahmed took 3/31 and Waqar Younis took 2/19.1991-92: ODI v Sri Lanka
Despite Inzamam-ul-Haq’s brilliant 101 to bring Pakistan to a modest total of 205 for 5 in 40 overs, Sri Lanka clinched the match by 4 wickets with 2 balls to spare.1994-95: ODI v Australia
Pakistan’s score of 200 for 8 in 50 overs was not good enough to stop the Australians from a thumping seven wicket victory in 46 overs. MoM award winner David Boon scored 84 not out. Inzamam-ul-Haq (59) scored another fifty in his hometown.Summary of International Matches at Multan
1955-56 To Date

Scattered India face tough task against South AfricaConnor Williams has now swung between two extremes in the littlematter of a week. He appeared a child of destiny when just one, orlet’s say two knocks put him on the plane to South Africa. The scriptseemed to be running the expected course when his seniors encouragedhim on the first two days of the nets and the word leaked he would beplaying the first Test, despite the Chatsworth wash-out. Standing in acorner while Virender Sehwag and Rahul Dravid practiced in the middleon Friday, he indeed cut a sorry figure. Openers are a dying breed inIndia. There were never many in the first place. A senior member ofthe side was spot on when he said the young openers must be given anextended run. “From pop-gun attack of home, you are suddenly put inthe firing line of the genuine quick bowlers. And then they get only afew Tests to play in a year.”

“The rest of the time, it is Sourav and Sachin opening the innings insome 40-45 one-day internationals per season. How does a young guygain in experience and confidence?”Indeed, the Test openers in India get international matches in fitsand starts only. Either you got to be patient with them or ask recordbreakers Ganguly and Tendulkar to make way for young openers in onedayers so they get more used to international fast bowlers. It is amalaise which befalls a lot of young Indian openers including oncehighly rated Wasim Jaffer of Mumbai. “He looked an extremely goodopener to me at one stage,” said legendary opener Sunil Gavaskar “Butlately I am not too sure of that.” Vinayak Mane is another youngsterwho has been shortlisted by those who matter as an opener with afuture.Wright has no doubt the success of openers will go a long way indetermining India’s performance in this series. A case in point is theHarare Test in Zimbabwe where Das had two partners in Hemang Badaniand Sameer Dighe in the two innings and both came a cropper. Theresult – India couldn’t chase even a score of 200-odd and lost thematch.

It has fallen on Rahul Dravid’s lot to shore up the sagging Indianship as its helmsman for the first Test. He is a team – man but nottoo inclined on opening the innings. His dilemma is understandable -he is well and truly established in the middle order and if hesucceeds, he might just be burdened with the job for many more Testmatches to come. He must be asked to produce the goods within hiscapacity and every issue of the team must not be laid in front of hisdoor.So we have a situation where a South African team is announced a weekin advance whereas the Indians are struggling to put their elevenliterally going into toss on the morning of the match. The wash-out atthe Chatsworth has been a body blow for the Indians. It was the onlygame they could have tried out the five new members flown especiallyfor the Test series. The sad part is, everyone knew there was littlepossibility of play at least a day before the match was set to roll.But neither the Indians tried too hard nor the KwaZulu-Natal Union,the cricket body under which falls the purview of Chatsworth body aswell, was keen to arrange a game for the visitors elsewhere in Durban.Indians did not protest aloud then and are now sulking in silence atthe lost opportunity for some time in the middle.Ganguly meanwhile has now received his new bats from a Meerutmanufacturer and it weighs more than 10 grams less than his 150-gramplus stick of willow for the one-dayers. Quite possible the Indiancaptain realises he would be peppered with short stuff and he musthave a light stick to move into position quickly in the Test series.

Carl Anderson will lead the Canterbury A team in this year’s A team competition.The side was announced this week by the Canterbury selectors.It is: Carl Anderson (captain), Robbie Frew (vice-captain), Robbie Miller, Marcel McKenzie, Harley James, Peter Fulton, Darron Reekers, Mark Hastings, Ben Yock, Andrew Ellis, Brendon Donkers, James Ward.

Australian captain Steve Waugh will front match referee Ranjan Madugalle tonight after being charged with misconduct relating to an incident on the third day’s play of the Second Test against South Africa in Melbourne.Waugh, who scored 90 in Australia’s innings of 9/487, faced possible disciplinary sanction over his reaction to umpire Darrell Hair’s decision to uphold a run out appeal against him midway through the day’s final session.Hair chose not to refer the decision to third umpire Bob Parry, though television replays later injected some controversy into the run out in revealing that wicketkeeper Mark Boucher may have been faster than the ball in making contact with the stumps.The Australian captain lingered at the crease after Hair’s ruling, prompting the charge of dissent to be brought against him by Madugalle under the International Cricket Council’s Code of Conduct.He faces a possible fine and/or suspension for his actions, though he has no past history in Tests of such offences.It is expected that the results of the hearing – which is to be conducted in the presence of Hair, fellow umpire Eddie Nicholls, and Australian team manager Steve Bernard – will be made public shortly before the start of play tomorrow.Ironically, the run out was the result of a direct-hit throw from cover point by Herschelle Gibbs, whose error in dropping a catch off Waugh’s bat at a Super Six match at the 1999 World Cup remains the subject of cricketing legend in Australia.

Australia resoundingly, if expectedly, beat England at Hagley Oval in the ICC Under-19 World Cup Super League today.Their 281/5 was far too many for England to chase, and at the finish the margin of victory was a huge 116 runs.Australia move on to the semi-finals with a 100% winning record, which has been the only one remaining in the tournament since early last week.England was reliant on New Zealand losing to South Africa, and even then, due to their poor net run rate, probably need a bonus point from Friday’s match against South Africa to stay in the tournament.George Bailey (69 not out) put the game beyond England when he and man of the match Adam Crosthwaite added 85 off the last six overs of the Australian innings. They hit six sixes and four fours in that time, after England had hauled themselves back into the game.Bailey made 69 off 55 balls and Crosthwaite 48 of 26 balls.”Adam’s performance today was most impressive,” Australia coach Wayne Phillips told CricInfo. “He’s a tremendously skilful young man.””That’s basically the first step covered,” he continued.As for the impending semi-final, the diplomatic Phillips said, “It’s not that we’re not bothered who are opposition is, but whoever our opposition is we’ll be as best prepared as we can be.”Soon to be famous sons of once famous fathers abounded. Denis Compton’s son Richard was here to watch his son Nick play for England, while Australia’s Geoff Marsh looked over his son, Shaun. Both had ordinary matches, although three dropped catches by Compton were particularly unfortunate and costly.He missed Jarrad Burke (30) off Kyle Hogg in the 11th over of the Australian innings and later put down both Bailey and Crosthwaite before the fireworks really began.Burke and Craig Simmons (67 off 86 balls) added 98 for the first wicket in 24 overs, but then four wickets fell for 57 runs in 13 overs, three of whom were dismissed by new wicket-keeper Bilal Shafayat.Shafayat was a last minute replacement for injured wicket-keeper Stephen Pope, who hurt his wrist when batting against New Zealand in England’s last game, when Shafayat, topping England’s averages, was mysteriously dropped.England manager James Whitaker said, “The irony is that if these guys beat Australia and we get a bonus point against against South Africa, we go through.””We’ll have to raise our game considerably for that to happen, because South Africa are a good side. We will have to improve our game in all areas,” said the Leicestershire CEO.”I expected a little more resilience,” he continued. “It was a shame that we dropped three vital catches and three different players all got established.””I’d have liked to have seen a little bit more fight with the middle-order and lower-order,” he told CricInfo.A spell of three wickets for no runs in 11 balls by slow left-arm chinaman bowler Beau Casson (four for 33), allied to Burke’s three for 13 ensured England’s last seven wickets fell for 53 runs.”We have a number of spinners we have confidence in,” said Phillips, who could afford to leave out the impressive Tasmanian slow left-armer Xavier Doherty.In contrast, a more flustered Whitaker could only say, “We’ll have to sit down and think quite hard about the personnel who play in the next match. We’re looking for the best 11 fighters. We’ll let the dust settle then look for the most disciplined eleven.”

Somerset Coach Kevin Shine was back at the County Ground this morning after undergoing a hernia operation in the Somerset Nuffield Hospital ten days ago.During his time in the Somerset Nuffield a mysterious bouquet of pansies was delivered which have been a considerable source of debate around the club.Earlier today Somerset Chief Executive Peter Anderson told me: “Kevin Shine appreciated the boquet of pansies but not so much the pink ribbon which was tied around them.”He wants to make it clear that the surgeon who carried out the operation blunted three scalpels cutting through his stomach muscles.”Kevin Shine exclaimed: “Is that hard or is that hard!”Welcome back coach, and glad to see that you are feeling better and back at the ground.

VIGNE CUP: ROUND 4, 24 NOVEMBER 2002ALEXANDRA SPORTS CLUB V OLD GEORGIANS SPORTS CLUBAt Alexandra Sports Club. Alexandra won by two wickets (Duckworth-Lewis).OLD GEORGIANS**L S Malloch-Brown b du Plessis 8C B Wishart b Rennie 35T J Friend c Anticevich b D A Marillier 32A J C Neethling run out (Anticevich) 1A J Mackay c and b D A Marillier 87R de Sousa c and b D A Marillier 0S Jones run out (Rennie) 7J Biggs not out 16R J Bennett lbw b Rennie 0I M Coulson b D A Marillier 3M Steel b Rennie 9Extras (lb 1 w 9) 10(54.3 overs) 208du Plessis 6 3 9 1Vaughan-Davies 11 1 47 0 (3w)Rennie 21.3 1 58 5 (5w)Anticevich 6 0 34 0D A Marillier 10 0 59 2ALEXANDRAD de Beer c Wishart b Friend 4B Benhura run out (Jones) 11M J Vaughan-Davies c Malloch-Brown b Friend 11D A Marillier c Wishart b Coulson 61*G J Rennie c Malloch-Brown b Mackay 19+G C Goosen c Steel b Coulson 9S J Marillier st Malloch-Brown b Coulson 8A R G Gilmour lbw b Mackay 8J Cameron not out 2C M Anticevich not out 7G du PlessisExtras (b 21 lb 1 w 9 nb 3) 34(8 wkts; 37 overs) 174Friend 6 0 48 2 (8w 1nb)Mackay 15 3 47 2 (1w 2nb)Bennett 2 0 21 0Coulson 14 3 36 3OLD HARARIANS SPORTS CLUB v UNIVERSALS SPORTS CLUBAt Old Hararians Sports Club. Old Hararians gained a winning draw.OLD HARARIANSR W Price c Murphy b Mahwire 8R E Butterworth c Chouhan b Mahwire 15C H Brewer c Chouhan b Murphy 15D P Viljoen not out 74*P A Strang c Hondo b Murphy 55G B Brent c Chouhan b Murphy 13H P Rinke not out 18+S Khan lbw b Murphy 8T Benade b Ebrahim 1M Ehsitere run out (?) 1T Dzvairo not out 0Extras (w 16 nb 22) 38(8 wkts; 53? overs) 246Murphy 20 2 80 4 (7w 14nb)Mahwire 9 1 33 2 (4w 2nb)Hondo 6 0 26 0 (1w 1nb)Croxford 9 2 33 0 (3w)Matambanadzo 2 0 18 0 (2nb)Ebrahim 10 0 36 1Adds to 56 overs; only 55 permitted. Runs 20 short.UNIVERSALSD D Ebrahim st Khan b Strang 39*B A Murphy b Price 37G M Croxford b Strang 25N B Mahwire c Butterworth b Price 21D R Matambanadzo not out 25I Meman lbw b Strang 6N Chouhan lbw b Price 5H Adam not out 4D T HondoJ S NicolleB SanyikaExtras (b 1 lb 3 w 2 nb 1) 7(6 wkts, 41 overs) 179Total adds up 10 runs short.Brent 9 1 30 0 (1nb)Price 20 2 80 3Rinke 2 0 21 0 (1w)Strang 10 2 44 3 (1w)UPRISING v HARARE SPORTS CLUBAt Prince Edward School. Match abandoned as a draw.UPRISINGI M Chinyoka c Carlisle b Bala 30T Madhiri lbw b Durham 4L K Mutyambizi c Brous b Bala 5I Senzere b Gripper 42A Tichara b Gripper 1C Mukandiwa c Ferreira b Bala 1A Chitare c Gripper b Bala 16T Katomeni lbw b Gripper 5*G Chiposi b Gripper 0I Chemhuru run out (Durham/Ferreira) 0J Muteerwa not out 6Extras (b 9 lb 2 w 5 nb 1) 17(42.2 overs) 127Durham 5 0 23 1 (2w)Mhandu 2 0 14 0 (1nb)Bala 19 6 31 4 (1w)Gripper 16.2 6 48 4 (2w)HARARE SPORTS CLUBS V Carlisle lbw b Muteerwa 9*T R Gripper not out 13+N R Ferreira not out 12R CroxfordJ M CornfordD J R CampbellK P R WentA M DurhamP BrousS BalaA MhanduExtras (lb 1 w 3 nb 4) 8(1 wicket; 10 overs) 42Muteerwa 5 0 27 1 (1w)Chinyoka 4 1 11 0 (1w 4nb)Mukandiwa 1 0 3 0 (1w)

ADELAIDE, Dec 21 AAP – Western Australia will be hoping Beau Casson can repeat his first innings wicket blitz tomorrow and guide the Warriors to outright points against South Australia at Adelaide Oval.SA skipper Greg Blewett and opener David Fitzgerald offered their team some hope of saving the game when they put on an unbroken 111-run partnership in today’s final session.The Redbacks were 1-118 in their second innings at stumps on day three of the Pura Cup match.But the home side was still in a precarious position, needing another 176 runs tomorrow to make WA bat again, after trailing by 294 on the first innings.Fitzgerald, SA’s top-scorer in the first innings with 63, was unbeaten on 64 at the close of play, with skipper Blewett on 53, after being dropped when on 41.Shane Deitz was the batsman out, stumped for a duck on the last ball before tea off the bowling of 19-year-old left arm spinner Casson.The youngster took 6-64 in the first innings in just his second first-class match.Earlier, WA’s Murray Goodwin ensured his side was firmly in the box seat with an innings of 164 to help the Warriors to 9(dec)-520 in their first innings, in reply to SA’s first innings 226.Goodwin’s marathon effort in searing heat lasted one minute less than eight hours.He was involved in a 247-run second-wicket partnership yesterday with WA skipper Justin Langer, who was equal top-scorer with 164, and a 149-run third-wicket stand with Mike Hussey today.”It wasn’t exactly a pretty innings, but I suppose it kept the Redbacks out there for a long time, which is pleasing for us,” Goodwin told AAP.”It wasn’t easy to bat on that wicket, or it wasn’t easy to score, put it that way.”Goodwin said there was still not much assistance in the pitch for the fast bowlers, but Casson was likely to play a vital role tomorrow.”We’re a little bit thin on the spin bowling side, we’ve only really got one spinner, so he’s obviously got to play a part,” Goodwin said.”Our pace bowlers, if they can keep it quite tight, who knows?”Goodwin said he felt WA was a strong chance of taking full points, despite Blewett and Fitzgerald’s solid resistance so far.”Adelaide Oval, once you get a couple of wickets you can get on a roll, so it’s going to be interesting,” he said.”I fancy our chances, I think we got 10 wickets on the first day and I don’t see why we can’t get nine on the last day when the wicket’s a little bit harder to bat on.”

Runs, runs, runs has to be the hope for both sides when the seventh and final match of the National Bank Series is played in Hamilton tomorrow.Conditions couldn’t be more of a contrast from those that greeted the sides that met here three weeks ago for the second Test of their series.The pitch looks a much better proposition, but then after all the pitch problems of this series, it is once again a case of wait and see.But as the last official outing for the two sides before the World Cup, it is important for both to get their two order batsmen among the runs.New Zealand are still without their preferred batting options with Nathan Astle opening and Craig McMillan at No 3. Mathew Sinclair will open again with Stephen Fleming and Chris Harris will be at No 3.Fleming was confident the pitch would be better on this occasion because the groundsman had prepared the ground in a different way and it had been ready for a day and a half.”It looks a very good surface and it would be great if we could finish on a positive note. The pitch has been used before which is an interesting way to prepare and maybe if it plays well it is something we have to look at a little bit more,” he said.”We’ve won only 36% of our games so we are in no position to think we have got a strength anywhere. Part of the process this summer has been exploring areas we see as a strength, getting them stronger and strengthening up other areas at the same time.”New Zealand had been off the mark with their bowling in the last game, but they couldn’t afford to be off the mark in any aspect of their game.Little mistakes had crept in when they had not been challenged and going into the last game they had to create challenges, which was the same in all the games since they had taken a 4-0 lead.”We’ve looked at areas of strength in the past and put them in the bank. What we need to do is develop different people in that area so that it can be done better.”What we have done is put players under pressure in different areas looking for a positive response,” he said.The side was looking to turn over every stone in developing a style because the style of the past had not been good enough.Fleming said they side was closer to the desired philosophy for the World Cup and while there were concerns with form at the top of the order, the philosophy was proving sound.New Zealand’s preparation had been thrown further into disarray as the result of the ear infection suffered by Shane Bond. Wicket-keeper Brendon McCullum was also being checked out after suffering dizzy spells.As a back-up for Bond, Paul Hitchcock will join the side in Hamilton.

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