He was tall. He was strong. He had a Punjabi-style
moustache. His hair used to fly like Hercules while running towards the batsman
with the ball in his hand – for the young and enthusiastic female followers of
cricket, that sight was a sheer joy. He was aggressive and played the game
hard. He was introvert and never wanted to share his plans and views about the
game. A complex character with a very few friends.
In his decade-long cricketing career, Sarfraz Nawaz hit the
headlines more due to his controversial acts rather than his in-cutters and
in-swing with the old ball. His in-cutters came back so sharply, the batsmen
could hardly realise when it had beaten his defence and left the stump
cartwheeling towards Wasim Bari, the wicketkeeper. Meanwhile, he would not dish
out the incoming deliveries against someone like Sunil Gavaskar, who played
those very well. For Sunny, Sarfraz’s weapon was either outswing or
leg-cutters, which challenged his top of off.
But, above all, he could move the old ball. How Srafraz
learned this art still remains a mystery to many. Several sources mention the
name of Farrakh Khan, a leading light of the Lahore Gymkhana in the late 1950s
and 1960s, and suggest that he passed the secret to the young Sarfraz. In
1966, in the Lahore Gymkhana nets, he showed it to a 17-year-old Sarfraz Nawaz.
Peter Obrone in his column at the Daily Telegraph wrote,
“Sarfraz discovered reverse swing by bowling with balls of all conditions, new,
semi-new and old. He began on matting wickets, where he could cut the ball.
“One day I shone one side of a very old ball and it swung. It was rough on both
sides, but I shone one side and it swung towards the shine – it should not have
done this.” In that Eureka moment, reverse swing was born. He refined the new
technique at the Mozang Link Cricket Club in Lahore. His opening partner Saleem
Mir also knew how to reverse swing, but they kept it a secret from other
bowlers”.
In 1974, during the England tour, Sarfraz discovered, Imran
Khan might be his bowling partner in upcoming days and thus, he shared such
secrets and art of reverse swing. In an interview, he said, “Imran Khan didn’t
know about reverse swing. In 1974 when we (Pakistan) were playing against West
Indies, Imran Khan came to me and asked how to swing the ball in reverse.”
“I told him ‘not during the match’ but will teach you
‘during net practice’ the next day”.
In the early and mid 70s, whether Sarfraz was able to use
reverse-swing effectively could not be understood as in those days, matches
were not telecast live on television and Pakistan hardly played enough Test
cricket to showcase their talent in the international circuit. Moreover, the
wickets in abroad did not suit Sarfraz to use the art and while playing in his
own country, the wickets were dead as a pancake as in those days, Pakistan
captains were defensive and avoided defeat.
The eventful day at
Melbourne
After a stupendous tour in Australia in 1976-77, Pakistan,
led by Mushtaq Mohammad, set foot on Australian soil for a two-match Test
series. But this time around, the Australian team was hit by Packer series.
Still, the likes of Rodney Hogg, Graham Yallop, Kim Hughes, Graeme Wood and
Allan Border were available to give the home team the confidence to challenge
Pakistan’s might.
Australia’s fighting spirit was evident in first innings
when Rodney Hogg and co ended Pakistan’s first innings below 200. None of the
batsmen could get past 40. Yallop’s decision to field first after winning the
toss was proven right. But, Imran was too hot to handle when Australia came out
to bat. It was an Imran Khan, who used to bowl with pace and less movement. He
could still bang the ball short and brought it back in at an astonishing pace.
Australia experienced the Imran of Sydney in 1976-77 as they trailed by 28 runs
in first innings.
Majid Khan, Zaheer Abbas and Asif Iqbal’s bat shone at the
right time and Pakistan declared at 353 for 9 in their second innings to give
the home team 382 runs to score in fourth innings. Australia ended Day 4 with
117 for 2 on the board.
In those days, chasing such totals were not easy, but still,
Australia ran Pakistan for their money.
In the morning session of final day, Graham Yallop was run
out. Border called for a single but Yallop was too late to respond. Asif picked
the ball quickly and threw it to Imran at non-striker’s end. At 128 for 3,
Australia were in a bit of a bother, but the fear and anxiety of home team
ebbed away when Hughes and Border came together at the crease.
Sarfraz bowled tight, Sikandar Bhakt was threatening while
Imran attacked all the way. The Pakistani pacers were aided by the legspin of
Mushtaq and Wasim Raja and Majid bowled nine tight overs to break the
partnership between Hughes and Border.
But nothing happened and it seemed nothing was going to
happen.
Border and Hughes batted past lunch and saw off till tea.
Mushtaq took the new ball and Border and Hughes weathered
the storm very well. Their partnership of 177 for the fourth wicket as the
highest in an Australia-Pakistan series.
At 305 for 3, it was Australia’s match to lose from there.
Pakistan’s shoulders dropped.
Mushtaq threw the ball to Sarfraz. Earlier, he was relying
more on the conventional swing and pithced the ball up more from a
straighter line. Neither did he feel the need of using the angles nor variation
in lengths as in first two days, the track was aiding movement off the pitch.
But the track lost its juice in the last three days and required something extraordinary
to register a win.
Wood came out to bat. Sarfraz delivered one which pitched
full again but moved the other way. Wood edged it and Bari took the catch.
Peter Sleep avoided the hat-trick but was an uncomfortable figure in the
middle. Sarfraz dished out a Yorker to nail him. The movement of the ball was
unconventional.
Hughes needed someone to hang around. Ken Wright tried to
give him support, but the ball was moving awkwardly to make life tough for the
batsmen. At one moment it left the bat and moved in on other occasions – you
don’t expect the old ball to behave like this. But Sarfraz was making the ball talk.
He was in a different momentum.
Hughes tried to attack Sarfraz to break the shackled but
holed out to Mohsin Khan. Wayn Clarke was outclassed by another reverse-swing
and Sarfraz was on a hat-trick for the second time. At this stage,
Sarfraz’s spell figures read 5 for 0 from 13 balls.
Hogg managed to avoid the hat-trick a big appeal for lbw was
turned down by the onfield umpire. Hogg and Wright tried to hang around, but it
was not an easy task to face Sarfraz in the final session of final day.
Sarfraz brought one back in to trap Hogg lbw with 12 overs still to go.
Two balls later, Hurst edged one to Bari off Sarfraz, and Australia folded for
310.
Sarfraz finished with 9 for 86 and his spell on the fourth
afternoon read 7 for 1 from 33 balls. His match figures were 11 for 125.
The impact of display at Melbourne
The crowd at Melbourne was stunned. The cricket experts and
critics were left thinking about the mysterious behaviour of the old ball. It
was the first time, the cricketing fraternity witnessed the devastation created
by reverse-swing. Sarfraz had unleashed a weapon which would be regarded as one
of the greatest discoveries in the history of cricket. It would have a great
impact on the game and even though the elites spoke against it at first, with
the progress of time, this Pakistan-made art became the part and parcel of
their cricket culture.
Sarfraz’s spell at Melbourne on the final day was a revolution.
Note: This
article has been published at Cricketsoccer
on 15/03/2017 CS Flashback: The revolution at Melbourne
Thank You
Faisal Caesar
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