3rd Test, New Zealand tour of Pakistan at Karachi, Oct 30 - Nov 4 1976


Scorecard

Toss: Pakistan. Test debuts: Pakistan - Shahid Israr, Sikander Bakht; New Zealand - N.M.Parker.
Dropped catches, most of them by their new wicket-keeper, Shahid Israr, prevented Pakistan from translating their vast superiority into another comfortable win.

All the same, a draw was a creditable result for the tourists, who had lost the first two Tests so heavily and who now found themselves playing without their captain and leading batsman, Turner, because of injury.

The enforced change in captaincy brought about no alteration in New Zealand's luck with the toss. Mushtaq won it again and Pakistan amassed a total of 565 for nine declared. The innings contained three hundreds and was notable for Majid Khan becoming the first Pakistani and the first from anywhere in 46 years to score a Test century before lunch.

His innings was packed with imperious hooks and fluent, effortless cover-drives. Javed scored 206 and Mushtaq registered his second century in successive Tests.

New Zealand, 67 for two at the end of the second day, recovered to score 468, more than half this total being raised by their last five wickets. Lees, the wicket-keeper, made 152, Hadlee scored a hard-hit 86 and Cairns, principally a bowler, got 52.

They were helped along by Israr's errors and, possibly, by the reluctance of Pakistan's acting captain, Asif, to use Intikhab's leg-spin. Asif was in charge because Mushtaq was taken ill.

Frustrated by the resistance of the tail, Imran Khan unleashed three consecutive bumpers at Hadlee, who batted at number eight and umpire Shuja-ud-Din compelled Mushtaq to withdraw Imran from the attack.

Pakistan, 97 ahead, began their second innings midway through the morning of the fourth day and scored 290 for five before it ended. Majid again made an aggressive 50 and Javed failed by only 15 runs to perform the rare feat of scoring a double-century and a century in the same Test match. But for the risks he had to take to score quickly, he would surely have accomplished it.


Pakistan gave themselves all the last day to bowl out New Zealand and looked like doing so when four wickets were down for 93. New Zealand managed to hold out with three wickets in hand at the finish. The edge of Pakistan's attack in this innings was blunted by the absence of Sarfraz, who was also ill. 

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