SPORTING ASPECT
A Test Match is Lost or Won
By JOHN ARLOTT IT happened once before—also at The Oval—when, in 1882, Spofforth bowled out England, including W. G. Grace. On that occasion a sporting newspaper printed an obituary notice of English cricket, stating that the body would be cremated and the Ashes taken to Australia.
This time there was less sense pf tragedy. ` English cricket' masked its surprise with a sickly grin. It will be good for Pakistan cricket, and for the young Pakistan nation, says your cricketer, swallowing hard and remembering to be high-minded. It will, indeed, be good for Pakistan cricket and for the young Pakistan nation. They would have said so themselves, given, time.
Fortunately for that section of the community which takes its sport seriously, the ` disaster' will, by Saturday, have been swamped by the onset of the football season when Hungary will become a greater problem than Kardar's cricketers. In December, too, we shall be visited by a German football team, Humour could deal no deadlier blow at the sporting creed than that Canada should now defeat Pakistan: but that could be a cruel blow at much simple pride also.
The umbrellas wore an air of well-rolled poise on Monday afternopn. It was then no more than a matter of whether the ' boys "could finish it that night and have a day of rest before their matches on Wednesday. Compton advanced down the wicket, bat raised to threaten such a destruction as he had worked at Trent Bridge. The bowling was too tight a net for him. Wickets fell : unease ruffled the umbrellas. On Tuesday they did not come. There was more room in the car-park. It had all, in fact, been done on Monday morning. The droll little man, Wazir Mohammad, who had plodded so slow and dejected a way back to the pavilion at Old Trafford. batted very seriously : he watched the ball carefully until it met his bat. At the other end, Zulfiqar allowed himself—once- the luxury of a superb late cut. Otherwise, each was deter- mined to show the English spectators that he could lose hard. They ticked off one afternoon train after another. Of course, they were very ordinary players, nodded the umbrellas : they will not last long. They lasted long.
England had what was called a ` pace attack,' which is to say that it had two fast bowlers and one medium-fast bowler. In Pakistan, many people bowl as fast as they can—and on fast wickets. No side we have seen is so strong against fast bowling as this from Pakistan. From first man to last they move firmly into the line of the ball and play it without flinching or hesitation. Certainly Mr. Tyson from Northants is fast; but his bowling can be seen.
The batting was so slow—almost monotonous. No one knew that the match was being won. Cricket matches are won like that : the scale may be greater in some Test matches— it is often much smaller in other cricket matches—but in essence it is merely the making of runs without the loss of wickets. The process may be called ` hitting out' or ` stone- walling ': unless time forbids it, the result is the same.
The umbrellas liked the Pakistanis : such game, cheerful chaps. They liked Fazal because he could bowl for so long and appear to like it. Now, however, he was engaged upon a process the direct reverse of that put into operation by his batsmen. He was taking wickets without compensation of runs. He was making the ball turn from right to left or from left to right after it bounced. Batsmen do not like this when the ball's landing-point is one from which neither the forward- stroke nor the back-stroke can be played with assurance. Moreover, the ball was being bowled at such pace that there was no time for consideration or exchange of stroke.
There were jokes on the field. Pakistan are not a grim side except when grimness in resistance to defeat is forced upon them. Even then, their manner is that of people (incompre- hensibly ?) enjoying cricket. Hanif has dared to joke by bowling both right arm and left in the course of the same over : the point of the joke lies in the fact that he took a wicket— with his left arm. On Tuesday he ran out the last English batsman by throwing down the stumps direct from cover-point. with his right arm.
Hanif is the finest hooker of fast bowling in the world. He has all the other strokes as well : within two years he might easily be the best batsman in the world. He did. not make many runs in this match; neither did Maqsood, on fast wickets one of the most entertaining stroke-players we have seen. How trite to say that this is a party of pleasant people who, as cricketers, like to score quickly and enjoy the game. The same has been said about teams of whom it was not true: in this case it is quite true.
The winners were excited at the result—childishly excited— as excited as the English team after they had beaten Australia last year. Some of them were as, near tears as some English cricketers were last year.
The crowd, which slightly outnumbered the police present, and which gathered in front of the pavilion after the match was over, held a large proportion of Pakistanis, many of them Students, many wearing horn-rimmed spectacles. There was also a lovely Pakistani girl in a red sari and a matching short coat thrown over her shoulders. They were all very polite: they took their cues' as to when to cheer, when to call for a player. dud when to be quiet, from the small boys who have been doing this after every final Test- since they were big enough fo go to The Oval. One such veteran reports that on returning home his mother asked him, ' Has there been a cricket match today, then ? '
It was an absorbing game of cricket. If only England had just won instead of just losing there would have been no element of surprise—nor quite such deep pleasure.
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