And that’s a Pak hundred!

No matter how exciting the last Australia v Pakistan Test at Sydney was Pakistan not only ended up losing but also added to the list of whitewashes inflicted on them by the hostsApart from the fact that the Pakistanis havenrsquot tasted series success in Australia in their 60year touring history they have been beaten in 17 consecutive Tests on Australian soil since 19992000Pakistan are well known for individual brilliance eventuating in centuries but even that was missing in the last series Much was expected from the highly skilled righthanded Babar Azam while on his third Test tour to Australia But 41 in the Melbourne Test was the best he could produce after enjoying considerable success in the previous two series against the AustraliansThe justconcluded series also did not witness a single century from a Pakistani something that has happened only once in the earlier 13 series in Australiamdashin 198182 But Pakistan won the final Test at Melbourne then to deny the hosts a 30 resultThe closest a Pakistani batsman came to three figures in the last series was when Mohammed Rizwan reached 88 in the first innings of the third Test at Sydney His highly entertaining 103ball innings ended when he made a mess of a pull shot only managing to top edge it to Josh Hazlewood off Pat Cummins Later on Aamer Jamal was dismissed for 82 In the first two Tests of the series Pakistanrsquos best individual scores came from the blade of ImamulHaq 62 in Perth and Abdullah Shafique 62 in MelbourneAustralian crowds did witness a plethora of centuries from Pakistani batsmen over the years Hanif Mohammad scored a masterly one in Pakistanrsquos firstever Test in Australiamdashthe oneoff game at Melbourne in 196465 Hanif was captain then and revealed in his book Playing for Pakistan that the best compliment for his 104 in the drawn Test came from celebrated writer Ray Robinson who wrote ldquoHe Hanif lived up to his nicknames the Little Master and Mr Concentration without overplaying the role that earned him the secondrdquo Hanif was well on his way to score his second century of the game when on 93 he took off for a single While his bat got stuck in his left pad the ball got lodged in between the thigh and pad of wicketkeeper Barry Jarman The Aussie whipped the bails without the ball in hand appealed and the umpire gave Hanif out Jarman was apologetic but couldnrsquot reverse the umpirersquos decisionHanifrsquos international cricket ended in 196970 three years before Pakistanrsquos next tour to Australia in 197273 when his brother Sadiq scored Pakistanrsquos first century of the series at Melbourne Mushtaq another Mohammad brother scored a firstinnings ton in the last Test at Sydney where Pakistan panicked and got bowled out for 106 while chasing only 159 for victory Majid Khan also scored a century in that seriesmdashat Melbourne a venue which witnessed a matchwinning ton from him in 197879Zaheer Abbasrsquos 15 Tests in Australia yielded only one century and 10 half centuries His 101 at Adelaide in 197677 followed his 85 in the first innings He fell 10 short of a century in the next Test at Melbourne when he bottom edged a delivery from Gary Gilmour only to see it hit the stumpsAnd how can Javed Miandad be kept away from Pakistan v Australia battles He scored a hundred in the 197879 Perth Test at a venue where he was severely tested in the one and only warmup game for his first tour in 197677 Asif Iqbal too got a hundred in that Test albeit in a lost causeThe matchwinning hundred for Asif was the one he smashed off Dennis Lillee Max Walker and Gilmour at Sydney where the 197677 series was squared Greg Chappell Australiarsquos then captain wrote glowingly of Asifrsquos innings in his book The 100th Summer while describing the situation where Pakistan were 2055 in the first innings ldquoBy this time Asif had settled in to take undisputed control dictating the terms in his habitually quiet though effective manner never giving an inch and making the going tougher for the attack with each over bowled It was an innings notable for the extreme concentration and applicationrdquo Pakistan ended up winning by eight wickets for their first of four Test wins on Australian soilPakistan did not have it any better from the point of view of centuries than the drawn Adelaide Test of the 198384 series when opener Mohsin Khan onedrop Qasim Omar and No 4 Javed Miandad scored tons Mohsin also scored a century in the Melbourne TestHardhitter Ijaz Ahmed was the next Pakistani after Majid Asif Mohsin and Javed to score more than one century in Australia He did so on the 198990 199596 and 19992000 tours At Melbourne in 1989 his 121 went in vain as Pakistan fell 92 short of the 429run victory target Imran Khan 136 and Wasim Akram 123 put on 191 for the sixth wicket in the next Test at Adelaide Qamar Ahmed the extensivelytravelled Pakistan cricket writer told me on Tuesday that he considered Akramrsquos innings as the best century by a Pakistani batsman Down Under ldquoI have reported on a lot of Pakistan centuries there but Wasimrsquos was the best as per the situation It left Australia to score 304 for victory and they ended up with 2336rdquo recalled QamarLefthanded opener Salman Butt scored centuries on the 200405 and 200910 tours but couldnrsquot help Pakistan taste success Saeed Anwar InzamamulHaq Mohd Yousuf Asad Shafiq Azhar Ali Younis Khan Yasir Shah and of course Babar are other Pakistani centurions in Kangaroo landA Test century in Australia can never be underestimated because the opposition bowling is seldom underpar the fielding is generally tight and the aggression can never be unrecognisable How Babar would have hoped for one in this series to make it less forgettablemiddayrsquos group sports editor Clayton Murzello is a purist with an open stanceHe tweets ClaytonMurzello Send your feedback to mailbagmiddaycomThe views expressed in this column are the individualrsquos and donrsquot represent those of the paper