Pakistan's victory in the Oval and Fazal Mahmood: When the Pakistani team was mocked to win this county match, it would be a big deal
In the last Test of the series between Australia and England in 1953, when England regained the traditional Ashes after a patient wait of twenty years, there was a strange atmosphere at the Oval Cricket Ground.
In front of a crowd of spectators, England captain Lane Hutton was responding to everyone from the balcony of the Oval Ground with a triumphant hand.
Apparently, it was a victory for England but it touched the heart of a 26-year-old Pakistani man who saw this victory and decided to make his country a winner in the same way. And then exactly one year later, on August 17, 1954, the same young man was happily appearing on the balcony of the same Oval Cricket Ground as the protagonist of Pakistan's historic victory.
It was fast bowler Fazal Mahmood who was on a tour of England with the Pakistan Eagles in 1953, where he had the opportunity to learn and understand a lot about bowling from the best coach of his time, Alif Gower.
After coaching, he headed to the Oval Cricket Ground, where his intentions were further matured by England's historic victory over Australia.
Rebellion against Kardar before the tour
There are many interesting stories of rebellion against captains in Pakistani cricket.
In fact, it all started with the first Test captain Abdul Hafeez Kardar. Among those who removed him from the captaincy was Pakistan's first unofficial captain, Mian Muhammad Saeed, as well as a few players from the team, who had planned it on their own while sitting in the pavilion of the Lahore Gymkhana.
Peter Oboon wrote in his book 'Wounded Tigers' that' before the Pakistan cricket team's tour of England, an attempt was made to remove captain Abdul Hafeez Kardar from the captaincy and Punjab Cricket Association President Fida Hassan was also present. Kardar had enlisted the help of Iskander Mirza, the then Secretary of Defense, to thwart the attempt.
Iskander Mirza had sent a message to the then president of Pakistan Cricket Board Mian Aminuddin to tell all those gathered in the pavilion of Lahore Gymkhana that Abdul Hafeez Kardar would be the captain of the Pakistan team in the tour of England. ۔ '
Vijay Merchant's satire
When the Pakistani cricket team left Karachi for England by sea, captain Abdul Hafeez Kardar was well aware that the experience of his players was nominal compared to a strong team like England.
The England squad included world-class batsmen such as Sir Lane Hutton, Dennis Compton, Tom Greene and Peter May and dangerous fast bowlers like Alec Bedser, Fred Truman, Frank Tyson and Brian Statham and dangerous spinners like Jim Laker and Johnny Ward.
In the same comparison between the two teams, Pakistani players had to listen to sarcastic remarks from some quarters. For example, India's famous Test cricketer Vijay Merchant had made fun of the Pakistani team by saying that if the Pakistani team wins matches against four, five county teams and draws ten-county matches in England, then this tour will be considered a success.
Pakistani players were furious at his statement.
England's famous cricket writer Naval Cards was not far behind in this regard. After the disappointing performance of the Pakistani team in the first three Test matches of the series, he interpreted the Test series with Pakistan as a mistake of the English authorities.
He even said that the Pakistani team could not stand in front of the Yorkshire, Nottinghamshire, Middlesex or Northamptonshire county teams.
Under these circumstances, if there was any support for the Pakistani team, it was the English coach Alif Gowar, who was well aware of the extraordinary abilities of Hanif Mohammad and Fazal Mahmood and said that the Pakistani team was less in this series of four Test matches. At least one test will be won
And then it's time for the Oval Test
Conditions were not good for the Pakistani team before the Oval Test. He lost the Trent Bridge Test by an innings and 129 runs. The rain at Lord's and Old Trafford came to his aid, otherwise who could have escaped defeat after being dismissed for 87 and 90?
The short story of the Oval Test is that after the Pakistani team was bowled out for 133 in the first innings, they bowled out England for 130 in which Fazal Mahmood took six wickets for 53 runs.
In the second innings, the Pakistani team scored 164 runs. England had a target of 168 runs to win the match but Fazal Mehmood's brilliant performance of six wickets for 46 runs had bowled out England for 143 runs to help Pakistan win by 24 runs.
Fazal Mahmood had taken 12 wickets for 99 runs in this Test.
Fazal Mahmood wrote in his book From Disc to Dawn that the fourth day's game was coming to an end. I was optimistic about winning but Captain Kardar was not thinking like me. I asked him on my last over of the day, "What if I get Dennis Compton out?" Kardar replied in Punjabi that "we will win again", I dismissed Compton in the same over and thus at the end of the game England had lost six wickets for 125 runs.
Fazal Mohammad writes in his book that at the end of the fourth day, Kardar came to my room and asked me what I thought about the match. What should be our line of action now? I said you are the captain, you will know better. I was worried that when I was talking about winning, the other players would not agree.
"I told Kardar to take care of Zulfiqar Ahmed. There is Johnny Wardel on the wicket who can have a wrong hit against a slow bowler.
Fazal Mehmood says, “After Kardar left, the manager Fida Hassan came into the room and started lecturing me, to which I replied that instead of lecturing me, you should explain to Kardar that he is the style of such a captain. Present action that believes in victory.
In the Trent Bridge Test between Fazal Mehmood and Kardar, it was heated that Kardar thought that Fazal Mehmood was unfit but he hid it and showed that he is fit to play.
Fazal Mahmood wrote in his book that "Peter May and Compton's aggressive batting made it seem as if they were in the mood to end the match on the fourth day. At one point I thought Kardar wanted to bowl to someone else instead of me so I snatched the ball from his hand saying do you want to lose the match? '
Kardar looked at me in surprise. At that time he did not even think that Pakistan could win the match. His response was to let the match go until the last day. It may rain at night and the match will be drawn, but the next ball I delivered to Peter May shortly after that conversation was caught by Kardar at the spot where I told my captain to stand. Was
"We won, we won."
After the historic victory of the Pakistani team, a large number of spectators gathered in front of the pavilion of the Oval Ground and chanted slogans of 'We want grace, we want grace'. This excitement was heightened when Fazal Mahmood appeared on the balcony and his face was telling what this victory meant to him. He went in but then came to the balcony and had a stump in one hand. On this occasion, he also picked up a six-year-old boy, Ahmed Rashid.
This photo is still one of the few memorable photos of the Oval Test, a copy of which was presented to the child by Fazal Mahmood with his autograph.
Fazal Mahmood writes in his book that "Allah had fulfilled the intention that I had shown Sir Len Hutton standing on the balcony a year ago, to stand victoriously on the same balcony today."
"It simply came to our notice then. Besides Army Chief General Ayub Khan and Lieutenant General Azam Khan, the first unofficial captain of the Pakistani team, Mian Muhammad Saeed, whose son-in-law I was, was also present. Justice Cornelis, who was shouting at Hutton, called Compton, told him to learn from Fazal Mahmood how to play.
"Who could forget Alif Gower, who was a commentator on the match and said after the match, 'We have won, we have won.'" He had forgotten that he was British. He was overwhelmed by the love of the Pakistani team, whose abilities he had always believed in. He also wanted to take a picture with me after the match.
Fazal Mahmood is one of the five Wisden cricketers
Fazal Mahmood was not only the hero of the Oval Test but also took a total of 77 wickets in the tour of England on which Wisden included him in the top five cricketers.
Wisden wrote about him in his article that his most special thing is his full stamina and the reason is that he sleeps early and wakes up every morning to walk five miles and run five miles.
Wisden wrote that he did not resemble Alec Bedser in size, run-up and bowling action, but both had in common that they were both masters of length and bowlers focused on swing.
Wazir Mohammad's 'acting'
While Fazal Mehmood's 12-wicket haul played a key role in Pakistan's historic victory in the Oval Test, Wazir Mohammad's responsible batting in Pakistan's second innings was also a turning point.
Apart from scoring an unbeaten 42, Wazir Mohammad added a valuable 58 for the ninth wicket with off-spinner Zulfiqar Ahmed and 24 for the last wicket with Mahmood Hussain.
Wazir Mohammad is the only cricketer still alive in the Pakistani team that won the Oval Test. Wazir Mohammad, 91, who lives in Birmingham, has many interesting memories of the Oval Test.
Speaking to Jaani Sports, he said that while I was batting in the second innings, Brian Statham's fastball hit my left toe. Although it was very painful, I could get up and play, but I pretended to take off my pad gloves and sat down as if I could not get up. The game paused. Meanwhile, wicketkeeper Godfrey Evans saw my condition and said something in captain Lane Hutton's ear, to which Hutton instructed Statham to bowl me on the front foot so that I could not play due to injury.
Wazir Mohammad said, "I also wanted the ball to be on the front foot because the rain had made the wicket so difficult that it was difficult to play on the back foot." "Whenever I played their balls, I was moaning in pain so that the England team would understand that I was really in trouble."
"My innings was also important because I was playing with tailenders, who are very difficult to play with because you have to protect them from the bowlers and you have to run yourself," says Wazir Mohammad.
Wazir Mohammad says that in this tour, each player used to get an allowance of seven pounds a week, but the truth is that passion was important to us, not money. Winning a Test match in the first series on English soil was no joke, even for a team that was brand new to international cricket.
"It's been 67 years since this victory, but even today, when I walk near the Oval Ground in London or watch a match on TV, the thought of this memorable victory comes to mind," said Wazir Mohammad. '