When Australia scored 758/8 against West Indies in 1955, there were as many as five batsmen who had scored a ton in just one innings. It took a whopping 46 years for the other teams to at least match the milestone, when a Waqar Younis-led Pakistan team dismantled Bangladesh in the 2001 Asian Test Championship at Multan.
On August 30, 2001, the likes of Saeed Anwar (101), Taufeeq Umar (104), Inzamam-ul-Haq (105), Mohammad Yousuf (102) and Abdul Razzaq (110) rode Pakistan to equal the record of most centuries in an innings.
Having won the toss and electing to bat, the Naimur Rahman-led Bangladesh had no answers to Danish Kaneria’s artistry. Scalping six wickets, the leg spinner helped his team to bowl Bangladesh out for a mere 134.
In turn, a 168-run opening stand between Anwar and Umar put Pakistan in a comfortable situation; a knock which laid down a snuggly foundation for the other batsmen to follow. Interestingly, Umar became only the eighth Pakistan batsman after Khalid Ibadullah, Javed Miandad, Salim Malik, Mohammad Wasim, Ali Naqvi, Azhar Mahmood and Younis Khan to score a century on debut.
Inzamam, Yousuf and Razzaq soon followed suit, bashing a clueless Bangladeshi bowling attack to post 546/3d on board. Inzamam’s unlucky return to the pavilion, however, was followed by a ruthless Razzaq attack, who arrived at the crease when Youhana was batting on 60. Razzaq had cruised to 70 against Youhana's 77 by tea.
Kaneria’s second six-wicket haul of the game denied Bangladesh to cross even the 150-run mark, as Pakistan registered a thumping victory by an innings-and-264-run in just three days.
As for the records, Pakistan’s 546/3 was the lowest ever team total which had four centuries, let alone including five. The record, however, was broken by New Zealand in the same year, 2001, against Australia, when the likes of Lou Vincent, Stephen Fleming, Nathan Astle and Adam Parore took the Kiwis’ total to 534/9. Furthermore, it was also the first instance that both left-handed opening batsmen – Anwar and Umar - had scored centuries in the same innings.
Feature image courtesy: AFP / Greg Wood
