Wasim Akram's 257*

[Goughy]

Noone mentioing Strangs unbeaten 100 at number 8 against Wasim and Waqar in the same game.

Wasims innings was important as the team was 237-7 and it was a big recovery. It was against a very weak attack though. Cant fault him though.. He went for it and it came off.

 

[Mr Mxyzptlk]

Noone mentioing Strangs unbeaten 100 at number 8 against Wasim and Waqar in the same game.

Wasims innings was important as the team was 237-7 and it was a big recovery. It was against a very weak attack though. Cant fault him though.. He went for it and it came off.

Was a fine effort, no doubt. Would've had the Man of the Match wrapped up if not for Wasim's heroics.

 

[Xuhaib]

I watched this game ball-by-ball atleast for the first 2 days and the track was a total road, the early innings collapse by Pakistan was just one of those things that happen with us time to time

 

[Richard]

Was certainly Strang's bunny (and that of somewhat high profile spinners...), given the number of times he faced him. (<-- tongue-in-cheek) But my memory of Stewart is limited, as my only experience of watching live footage of England before 2001 consisted of West Indies succumbing 3-1. In that series the closest West Indies came to posing a spinner was Mahendra Nagamootoo, who was really just a slow-bowling workhorse. No spin in sight.

I saw a lot of the Ashes in 2001, but I don't remember seeing much of him facing Warne. Though I believe he was out to him 2 or 3 times to Warne in that series. Certainly twice at the Oval. But basically most of my experience of Stewart was against fast bowlers, so I admit ignorance in his abilities against spin.

Stewart was much better against spin by 2001. He'd gone from utterly inept to merely below-average. You could still tell it wasn't his strength, but there's no way he'd have managed to play big innings against Australia including Warne which he did several times in 2001 and 2002/03 - never mind score a century against (albeit a barely half-fit) Murali which he did a year after the first of those - before the tutoring Duncan Fletcher gave him.

For most of his career, he (like Robin Smith and Allan Lamb) was truly flabbergastingly awful against spin - flabbergasting given how brilliant he (and Smith and Lamb) were against seam.

 

[DaRick]

Actually, that Test match came during the month following Paul Strang's breakthrough series. So it was when he was really emerging as pretty good, as opposed to his 7-Test struggle. In that very innings he had 4 wickets before Wasim Akram entered, then got his 5th (Moin Khan) 54 runs later (at 237-7). So he had a pretty cheap 5-wicket haul by the looks of things, then Akram took his toll and it blew up to 5 for 212.

I see...he was just coming out of his struggling phase and therefore was still far from conclusively decent at the time. I should've looked at his stats more closely.

 

[DaRick]

Wasim was an amazing cricketer and he's probably one of my favourite cricketer's of all time. For a bowler to score 257 not out irrespective of the side is a superb achievement. That Zimbabwean attack certainly looks stronger than their current bowling attack.

That's saying very little, you do know that? That being said, I agree with you in that it was a great effort, particularly by his relatively low standards (22 is a #8/9's average, ordinarily).

 

[haroon510]

well wasim had some bating skill.. just couldn't use it well...

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0IawFt1eW80

 

[Swervy]

For most of his career, he (like Robin Smith and Allan Lamb) was truly flabbergastingly awful against spin - flabbergasting given how brilliant he (and Smith and Lamb) were against seam.

Was Allan Lamb that bad vs spin? I don't remember him being that bad

 

[Lillian Thomson]

Was Allan Lamb that bad vs spin? I don't remember him being that bad

He wasn't that bad, but he struggled to get big scores overseas, especially in India and Pakistan. Abdul Qadir kept on getting him out on one tour of Pakistan. On the succesful tour of India in the mid-80's he made a few 50's but never went on from there. He was perfectly capable of playing the spinners but the scorebook unfortunately suggests otherwise.

 

[Richard]

Was Allan Lamb that bad vs spin? I don't remember him being that bad

TBF, it's probably inaccurate to group him with Stewart (for most of his career) and Smith, as he certainly wasn't embarrasingly bad as they were. But there was, as with them, a fairly considerable discrepancy in his skills against seam and spin.