Date-stamped : 20 Nov95 - 22:31 Pakistan 'A' v England 'A', 1st Test Multan. 17,18,19,20,21 November 1995 ====> Prematch, 16 Nov 95 Headley and McGrath rewarded - Simon Hughes ENGLAND A have had their mock exams, now the real Test begins. Today in Multan, a dusty, ancient city, they face the full might of Pakistan A in the kind of stifling, low-slung concrete bowl that, filled by a hysterical crowd of 30,000, could buckle even the stoutest English heart. There may only be a sparse crowd to- day but the match will be fiercely contested, with individual and national reputations at stake. Both sides practised yesterday at the MCC - a scruffy club ground next to the hotel with a wicket of rolled mud - but England are in better shape. They will decide this morning whether to play the extra batsman, Dominic Ostler, or the extra bowler, Ed Gid- dins. This is a solid vote of confidence in favour of two players who starred in the last match but would have considered themselves rather fortunate to be in the original tour party. Dean Headley had pen poised to sign a short contract working for an insurance company in Canterbury before Peter Martin was hurriedly drafted into the senior squad as replacement for Richard Johnson, and Headley got the A team call. A sprightly 6ft 4ins, he is quicker now than when he first played county cricket for Middlesex in 1990. The way his deliveries al- most kiss the surface is ideal for Pakistan`s hard, shiny wick- ets, which have been a good deal quicker than everyone expected. Anthony McGrath, the young Yorkshire opener, was equally surprised to be here. He played mostly league cricket last year but has adapted quickly to pitches which are the total opposite to Bradford puddings. `Their spinners don't really do much with the ball and the wick- ets are pretty flat, so you can milk them if you stay in` The captain, Nasser Hussain, is in brilliant form himself, ex- ploiting the questionable strategies of his opposite numbers. "Even when I had 70 or 80 in the last game they still didn`t have anyone on the sweep for the spinners," he said. "Their spinners don`t really do much with the ball and the wick- ets are pretty flat, so you can milk them if you stay in. The main thing is not to get put off by the pressure of men round the bat." Hussain also felt the Pakistan lower order was vulnerable and if hustled would very likely capitulate. The umpiring has been a familiar bone of contention, but many of the current crop of officials are former first-class players, and Hussain is not worried about that either. "The umpiring`s been good, and the most surprising thing is they`re very willing to come and have a chat and try to learn how English umpires read certain decisions. They can`t do enough for us really." On this tour the England captain has been a constant focus of at- tention, more because of the connotations of his surname - Hus- sain was Mohammad`s grandson - than his run-making. "I must have been asked a million times, am I a Muslim - I say I`m supposed to be but I`m not very religious. That leaves them a bit perplexed and they go away scratching their heads." Source :: The Electronic Telegraph (http://www.telegraph.co.uk) Contributed by The Management (help@cricinfo.com) ====> Day 1, 17 Nov 95 Salisbury`s spin takes its toll - Simon Hughes First day of five: England A (15-0) trail Pakistan A (137) by 122 runs PAKISTAN A gave a guileless display in the opening day of the first five-day match against England A at Multan yesterday, but this is not to belittle England`s effort. England bowled and fielded eagerly, keeping a tight line on an irritating pitch - no real use to anybody - and pouncing on any mistake. There were plenty of those in Pakistan`s dismal capitu- lation from 84 for three to 137 all out. Ian Salisbury took six wickets, bowling his leg-spin at a good pace with less `four-balls` than usual, and Ed Giddins, a late replacement for the unwell Dominic Ostler, two wickets in con- secutive balls. Craig White caught one batsman and ran out another from extra cover, and his young Yorkshire colleague Anthony McGrath took three catches, including a blinder at midwicket, to get rid of the one notable Pakistani batsman, Asif Mujtaba. McGrath can do no wrong at the moment. Dean Headley, of Kent via Worcestershire and Middlesex, broke the sequence with the wicket of the Test all-rounder Akram Raza and deserved more. He was at the batsmen all the time, bowled scarce- ly any half-volleys and was hit for only two boundaries in 22 well-sustained overs. The one obstacle to his continued progress maybe that his deliveries do not do a huge amount, but then that was levied at Dominic Cork this time last year. And look what happened to him. As usual in a Test on the sub-continent there seemed to be more police than spectators, and instead of stoppages due to pitch in- vasions or a clearing of fruit and other missiles from the out- field, the only delay was caused by a stray dog. A steward threw a brick at it and it ran off. The temperature was a pleasant 26 degrees centigrade, but clear skies in the Punjab do not necessarily guarantee a full day`s play. The sun is quite low at this time of year, and it was al- most obscured by the dust rising from the chaotic local bazaar. This did not prevent Ronnie Irani pulling off a brilliant running catch in front of the sightscreens to complete Salisbury`s haul and give him a post tea spell of four for four. Source :: The Electronic Telegraph (http://www.telegraph.co.uk) Contributed by The Management (help@cricinfo.com) ====> Day 2, 18 Nov 95 Tourists keep control with positive attitude - Simon Hughes Second day of five: England A(285-6) lead Pakistan A (137) by 148 runs ENGLAND A`s batsmen consolidated the strong position earned by their bowlers with a sensibly positive approach yesterday. Three players passed 50, and only Anthony McGrath failed com- pletely. None, however, was able to really grind the bowling down on a bare wicket which tended to make the ball snake into the bottom of the bat. The openers, Nick Knight and Jason Gallian, or Knick and Sason if you went by the scoreboard, provided a solid foundation by put- ting on 117. They had no problems with Kabir Khan, a sort of shorter, less feverish version of Wasim Akram, and the other sea- mers, but the left-arm spinner Nadeem Khan held the scoring in check until Gallian lofted him into a pile of grass clippings beyond long-off. This caused a delay while the umpires scraped debris off the ball - even they have resorted to tampering with it now. Gallian gave one chance to silly point which made him go into his shell for a while, but otherwise was the more fluent of the pair until he was bowled round his legs. Knight, having progressed mainly with firm pushes wide of mid-wicket, went one run later but he was extremely unlucky. Pulling the niggardly left-arm spin of Asif Mujtaba he gazed motionless as the ball ballooned up off short-leg`s knee and was caught by the sprawling wicketkeeper. After lunch the two men of Asian extraction took over. Nasser Hussain`s surname has gained a lot of appraisal over here, but it is his batting that deserves genuine attention. He is wristy, stylish and determined to unsettle the bowlers, which makes good watching. Against spin, he pays special attention to getting the straight field pushed back with a booming drive over the top. After one abortive attempt at this, he hit another so far it nearly ended up in a buffalo yard outside the stadium. Ronnie Irani inclines more towards mid-wicket and thumped two big sixes in this area. Music from a singer who sounded as if he was being strangled came over the tannoy at the drinks interval, but neither batsman was distracted. Soon afterwards they reached their fifties with identical flashes through square cover, while other team members sunned themselves on the pavilion roof and McGrath practised his defence on a concrete patio, with guidance from John Emburey. Witnessing Hussain`s dominance and panache at this level -the 52 yesterday was his lowest score on this tour - you wondered why he, like Mark Ramprakash, remains so unfulfilled at Test level. Fear of failure, intense media scrutiny and poor man management may have something to do with it. On A tours there is much less of a spotlight. The Pakistan media are only vaguely interested and the public not at all. There were more people clustered around a collection of fruit stalls beside the ground than there were in it. But when their national teams are under the cosh both home and away, you can hardly blame them. Source :: The Electronic Telegraph (http://www.telegraph.co.uk) Contributed by The Management (help@*ogi.edu) ====> Day 3, 19 Nov 95 Headley opens door to probable success - Simon Hughes Third day of five: Pakistan A (137 & 115-5) trail England A (327) by 75 runs with five wickets remaining BASICALLY England A are too good for this opposition. They have certainly outplayed them in every department here, and the Pakis- tanis will have to draft in a much better batch or spike the lunches to be competitive in the rest of the series. They will do well to take this match past lunch on the fourth day. And that is with each of the first three being truncated by bad light. England batted on for 11/2 hours yesterday morning, swelling the lead to 190 largely due to the swat and scuttle of Keith Piper. A little later after his innings he was sprawling in front of first slip to hold a low edge from the bat of Mohammad Ramzam. The bowler was Dean Headley, who recovered better than Ed Giddins from his first-innings endeavours and began with four consecutive maidens. Nasser Hussain had set the team a target of claiming four wickets in the remains of the day, but when Pakistan sank to 26 for two just after lunch, that estimate looked conservative. Headley was right on target - his first spell was 11-6-13-2 - and the ball was skidding through low off the cracked egg-shell sur- face and making an ugly clunk on the bat. This sound was gradually obliterated by the plaintive chanting from mosques, shrines and minarets, which reverberated around the ground, but it did not seem to imbue the home players with greater resolve, and they could not shake off the persistent En- glish bowlers. Just as partnerships began develop, a rash shot terminated them, culminating in a embarassing display of swishing from the No 6 Navid Rana, which never had any hope of success. The captain, Asif Mujtaba, batted very responsibly, but his body language suggested he was thinking `What am I doing with this shower?` A couple of catches went down, but England fielded very well, despite the absence all day of Craig White and, briefly, of Piper, both officially suffering from stomach complaints. In Pakistan this is actually a euphemism for a condition which demands you do not stray further than two feet from the nearest toilet. It is the bowling that has really put England in the driving seat, however, and Headley impressed John Emburey sufficiently to earn a casual recommendation for the World Cup. Emburey, the tour coach, said: "He sometimes needs to be told where to bowl, but is talented enough to put a plan into action. "He`s also good at the end of a one-day innings, getting it right up in the blockhole. He`s done better than we expected here and, if he carries on, I would have thought he`ll come into contention for the World Cup squad." Source :: The Electronic Telegraph (http://www.telegraph.co.uk) Contributed by The Management (help@*ogi.edu) ====> Day 4, 20 Nov 95 Headley and Stemp put Pakistanis to the sword - Simon Hughes Fourth day of five: England A (327) beat Pakistan A (137 & 147) by an innings and 43 runs THE ancient city of Multan is famous for its dust and its burial grounds, and certainly Pakistan need to dig up some new talent if they are not to lose this A Test series 3-0. Nasser Hussain had predicted before this match that their lower ranks were liable to blow over in a passing breeze and, sure enough, they were snuffed out well before lunch to give England a comprehensive innings victory. This was mainly achieved by a persistent, well-drilled bowling attack within which both Richard Stemp and Dean Headley were metronomically accurate. Headley`s five for 34 could have been eight for 20 if he had have been luckier with cautious umpiring decisions and overthrows, and he won the man-of-the-match award from that old bat twirler, Sadiq Mohammad, the adjudicator. Sadiq was also the official match referee, although he only discovered as much when opening a letter from the Pakistan board on Thursday`s flight from Karachi. The concrete stadium was again almost deserted when the team took the field yesterday; in complete contrast to the mayhem 200 yards away of horse, mule and buffalo-drawn carts passing through the local market. Headley was feeling decidedly ropey but was soon pressed into service at one end, while Stemp wheeled away at the other. The Pakistan captain, Asif Mujtaba, remained a lone figure of de- fiance and struck his first ball from Stemp for a straight six. His partner, Akram Raza, had similar visions of grandeur but not quite the technique and could only carve Stemp to cover. It was a procession after that. Headley took two wickets in three balls and demonstrated that he was dehydrated mainly because of the quantity and volume of his lbw appealing. Mujtaba reached an excellent fifty, but the fact that it was a hopeless cause eventually wore him down and he lofted to long-on. The Pakistan A side contained four Test players and three from their under-19 team, but they wilted under pressure from England and looked hardly better than a county Second XI. They had little resolve and no direction. But Hussain was quick to praise his own men. "I can`t speak high- ly enough of Dean Headley. To bowl them out on that wicket was a fantastic effort," he said. "Our bowlers won this match and the thing that particularly pleased me was the fact that we conceded only 280-odd runs in 150 overs." The one disadvantage of winning this game so quickly is that the team now have the best part of three days to kill in Multan. A duck and pheasant shoot is planned, but if the local cricketers are anything to go by the birds will probably just lie down and die. Source :: The Electronic Telegraph (http://www.telegraph.co.uk) Contributed by The Management (help@*ogi.edu)