Pakistan's 'King-Pin' Hanif quit cricket on high note

By A.C De Silva

CRICKET: This was an ideal chance for Pakistan's 'King pin' Hanif Mohammad to quit Test cricket on a high note. He made the marvellous score of 337 after they were forced to follow-on in that memorable 55th Test against West Indies Bridgetown, Barbados on January 22.

It was a record-shattering innings indeed that helped Pakistan to a draw after Pakistan were forced to follow-on after they were shot out for 106 in the first innings after West Indies made the somewhat huge first innings score of 579 for 9 wickets declared in the first innings.

When Pakistan were forced to follow-on 473 runs behind on the first innings, there was little hope for the Pakistanis to survive in their second innings, but Hanif Mohammed stood out like a beacon and saw to it that the West Indies were not going to have their own way.

Hanif spent 16 hours 13 minutes at the wicket, easily beating the previous first class endurance record of Len Hutton during the Test against the Australians at the Oval in 1938. Hanif score failed by only 28 runs to beat Hutton's world Test record of 364 against Australia in 1938 but it was one better than the second highest of 336 by England's Walter Hammond against New Zealand in Auckland in 1933. 'Wonder boy' of 15 Hanif Mohammad - the tiny Pakistani opening batsman first jumped into prominence as a 'boy wonder' of 15 when he scored a polished century for Karachi Muslims against Punjab.

In 1952, when 17, Hanif became one of the youngest Test players in the world when chosen for all five Tests against India.

One of five cricketing brothers (another of them - Wasir, was also playing in this game) he was the most dependable batsman in Pakistan. He was referred to as 'Little Master' and was acclaimed the world ever as one of the best opening batsman. He was born on December 21 in 1934 in Junagfha in India and moved over to Pakistan when he was 12 years old and played superbly for Pakistan. He played for Pakistan in 55 Tests between 1952-53 and 1969-70 and averaged 43.98 with 12 hundreds. Here in this Test, he batted the longest innings on record - 337 runs in 999 minutes for Pakistan against the West Indies.

The pocketsized Pakistani is only 5ft 3 inches in height, but he had let the bat do the talking. He holds cricket's endurance record - 337 runs in a Test against the West Indies in Barbados from January 20 to 23 in 1958.

Hanif's 337 topped the late Sir Donald Bradman's Test highest of 334 in 6 hours 45 minutes in 1930, outlasted Sir Len Hutton's longest innings of 364 in 13 hours 20 minutes for England vs Australia in 1938. 337 against Windies stood long time Hanif's top score of 337 against the Windies in 1957-58, was the longest in Test history (and stood as the longest in all first-class cricket for over 40 years as Hanif spent more than 16 hours at the crease. It is only Test match constance of a triple century in a team's second innings.

Displays such as this earned him the nickname 'Little Master'. In 1958/59, he surpassed Don Bradman's record for the highest individual first class innings-Hanif made 499 before being run out attempting his 500th run. This move stood for more than 35 years before being edged by Brian Lara in 1994. In all, he made 55 firstclass centuries and finished with a first-class career average of 52.32 (career lasted until 1975-77).

Hanif was named as Wisden's Cricketer of the Year in 1968. Then in January 2009, Hanif was named along with two other Pakistani players Imran Khan and Javed Miandad among the celebrated batch of 55 inductees into the ICC's Hall of Fame.

The highlighted of Hanif's career are many, but one instance came in a Test match against Australia here Hanif scored a century in the first innings. Then in the second innings of the same match, he was wrongly given out - stumped by Barry Jarman off Tom Veivers for 93 runs just 7 runs away from his second century. Hanif obeyed the umpires decision. Later at the press conference, Jarman admitted that Hanif was not out.

		SCORE BOARD
WEST INDIES - 1ST INNINGS:
579 (For 9 wkts dec. - E. Weekes 179, C. Hunte 142, O.G. Smith 78)

PAKISTAN 1ST INNINGS:
106 (R. Gilchrist 4 for 32)

PAKISTAN 2ND INNINGS:
(overnight 525 for 3 wkts contd)

Hanif Mohammad c Alexander b D. Atkinson       337
Wallis Mathias lbw b Atkinson			17 
Kardar b D. Atkinson				23
Fazal Mohmood b Valentine			19
Nasimul Ghani b Valentine	     		00
Mohmood Nussain not out 			00
Extras 						33
Total (for 8 wkts declared)		       637

Fall of wickets:  1-152, 2-264, 3-418, 4-539, 5-598
		  6-626, 7-647,8-649
Bowling: C. Gilchrist  41-5-121-1
	 E. Atkinson 49-5-136-2
	 D. Atkinson 62-35-61-1
	 Smith 61-30-93-1
	 A. Valentine 39-8-109-2
	 G. Sobers 57-25-94-1
	 C. Walcott 10-5-10-0

WEST INDIES 2ND INNINGS
C. Hunte not out				11
R. Kanhai not out				17
Extras						00
Total (for no wkts)				28

Bowling: Fazal Mohmood 2-1-3-0
	 Kardar 3-1-13-0
	 Hanif Mohammed 3-1-10-0
	 Saeed Ahmed 2-2-0-0
	 Wazir Mohammad 1-0-2-0