On Boxing Day, New Zealand will take on Pakistan on Pakistani soil for the first time in Test cricket for over 20 years.
The last time the Blackcaps played Test cricket in Pakistan was way back in 2002 at Lahore where Pakistan registered a thumping victory. The home side piled on 643 in the first innings with opener Imran Nazir scoring a hundred and Inzamam-ul-Haq compiling 329, a score that remains the second-highest individual total by a Pakistani Test cricketer.
New Zealand offered feeble resistance with the bat, folding to 73 all out in their first innings and 246 in their second to hand Pakistan a victory by an innings and 324 runs. It remains their largest margin of victory and New Zealand’s largest margin of defeat.
Pakistan’s chief destructor with the ball was Shoaib Akhtar who took 6-11 in a scintillating spell of fast bowling. Five of Akhtar’s victims were bowled while the other was lbw. Four of his dismissals were those of New Zealand’s top five. The spell came during a golden period for Shoaib who took 72 wickets at 15.08 across 13 Tests in 2002 and 2003.
You can watch Shoaib Akhtar’s 6-11 below:
