Obscure byways of Pakistan cricket

Everyone knows about Bradman’s 99.94 and most cricket fans know about A.G. Ganteaume’s freak average of 112.00 .

But have you wondered who scored the most runs in his Test career without ever being dismissed? The answer is Pakistan’s Afaq Hussain of the 1960s, whom most Pakistani cricket fans may not have heard of:

http://www.espncricinfo.com/ci/content/player/38975.html

Cricinfo does not have a picture for him.

Here is a list of those who scored the most runs in Tests without ever being dismissed:

But Afaq played in only 2 Tests and 4 innings. Whom do you you think played the most Tests and innings without ever being dismissed? The answer is another Pakistani player, who is somewhat better known but is not likely to play Tests again:

http://www.espncricinfo.com/ci/content/player/39821.html

Here is the list of those who played the most Tests and innings without being dismissed;

Note that this list includes Niaz Ahmed who has been mentioned as the only East Pakistani to have played for Pakistan. He was born in Varanasi, so this may or may not be true.

There have been only three instances of 4 wickets in 5 balls, and Pakistan has been involved in two of them:

Scorecards of these matches:

http://www.espncricinfo.com/ci/engine/match/63211.html

Here Pakistan went from 125/6 to 126/9, with Wasim Bari, Iqbal Qasim and Sikander Bakht being out first ball.

http://www.espncricinfo.com/ci/engine/match/63542.html

Here Akram dismissed tailenders Ambrose and Walsh first ball.

And finally, the lesser known Pervez Sajjad held the record of best Test return for 4 wickets from 1965 to 2013:

http://www.espncricinfo.com/ci/content/player/42324.html

He was the the first to reach 4 wickets for 5 runs in 1964-65. This was equalled by England’s Ken Higgs soon afterwards but was not beaten until Zimbabwe’s A.C. Cremer took 4-4 in 2013.