5 instances when Pakistan collapsed on the final day

Test cricket, while it may seem dull and boring, is the ultimate form of the game: testing every player in each aspect – patience, determination, temperament and technique.

Sometimes, there are games that are heading towards a tame draw, and suddenly, life springs into them out of nowhere, courtesy a collapse or a brilliant spell. No one knows it better than Pakistan: they are one of the teams prone to collapses, especially on the fifth day of a Test match or while chasing in one-day cricket.

Pakistan have the tag of being ‘consistently inconsistent’, the sole reason being that they play brilliantly on one day and disappointingly on the other. And one of the reasons for their shoddy performances has been frequent collapses. When you think that they will get through with a draw, they spring a surprise with a collapse.

With their recent collapse against Sri Lanka (where they failed to chase down 136 on the final day) being their 8th collapse since 2014 and 6th since 2016 (all on the final day), let’s have a look at five of them.

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#5 Abu Dhabi, 2015 – vs England

For four days, the Zayed Stadium’s pitch bore the criticism of being boring and heavily inclined towards batsmen. Shoaib Malik and Alastair Cook made the most of the flat pitch by scoring majestic double tons (245 and 263 respectively). Pundits were screaming their lungs out at the placid nature of the pitch, and just when everyone had given up, the game took a dramatic turn in the last session of the final day.

After scoring 598 in reply to Pakistan’s 523, England declared on the fifth morning, with the pitch still flat and the game heading towards a draw. Even at tea, the hosts had just lost three wickets and a draw seemed inevitable.

Pakistan then decided to spring life into the game by playing a few rash shots and gifting wickets to the England bowlers. Losing the last seven wickets for 60 runs, they folded for 173, setting England a target of 99 with 18 overs remaining.

Lady luck eventually seemed to be on Pakistan’s side, as light faded with England 25 runs short of a memorable win.

#4 Birmingham, 2016 – vs England

All England bowlers shared the spoils in the second innings

The series tied at 1-1, Pakistan had bossed the game for the first three days of the Birmingham Test, restricting England to 297 and then gaining a 103-run lead.

However, a disappointing bowling effort aided by a comical fielding in the second innings helped England blaze away to 445, setting Pakistan a target of 343 in the fourth innings after declaring on the final day.

While the chase was never on, Pakistan had the task of batting through the 84 overs left in the day. The top-order went about the job admirably, as lunch was taken at 69-1.

Suddenly, the middle session blew away the experienced middle-order, as Pakistan lost 6 wickets (including a phase where 4 wickets fell for one run).

England cantered to a win with 13 overs left on the final day. Pakistan lost their last 9 wickets for 122 in 40.3 overs to hand England a 2-1 series lead.

#3 Hamilton, 2016 – vs New Zealand

Southee took 8 wickets in the game to help Kiwis win the second Test

With a 1-0 lead, New Zealand were looking to go for the kill when they set Pakistan a target of 369 on the fourth evening. The pitch was surprisingly still pretty green for a fifth-day surface.

With two days lost to rain and all three results still possible, Pakistan started the fifth day on a positive note. The openers stitched a wonderful 131 run-stand, and more importantly, batted out 60 of the 99 overs Pakistan had to.

At that stage, it looked like a draw was certain, but again, like many occasions previously, Pakistan started throwing their wickets away. Even in the final stages of the game, where the visitors had 5 wickets remaining and had to bat out 19 overs, a draw beckoned.

The Pakistan middle-order, in the absence of Misbah, fell like nine pins in the final session as New Zealand took ten wickets for 99 runs to lose the Test match.

#2 Melbourne, 2016 – vs Australia

Azhar Ali's double ton went in vain

After they fell short by 39 runs in a spirited chase of 489, Pakistan started the Boxing Day Test on a bright note, scoring 443 in the first innings. Australia, though, gained the upper hand by taking a lead of 191, but by the time they declared their innings, it was almost lunch on the fifth day as more than three sessions were lost to rain.

Pakistan had to bat for about two sessions to salvage a draw on a relatively flat pitch. But they needed to be careful, as they had already had a couple of horrible collapses in the past six months.

The start wasn’t great but the experienced duo of Azhar Ali and Younis Khan settled the nerves with a solid 57-run stand. However, some reckless batting by the middle order and some fine bowling led by Mitchell Starc triggered a dramatic collapse to hand Australia the series as Pakistan were bundled out for 163 in 53.2 overs, failing to bat out two sessions to save the game.

#1 Barbados, 2017 – vs West Indies

Shannon Gabriel was the Man of the Match for his 9-wicket haul in the match

After taking a 1-0 lead and being ahead for the most part of the second Test, Pakistan were expected to seal the series. But a spirited fightback from West Indies helped them set a target of 188 on a crumbling pitch.

With Pakistan’s history of final day collapses, it was going to be an interesting chase as Pakistan were chasing a piece of history of their own – winning a series in the Caribbean for the first time and becoming the first Asian team to defeat the Windies at Barbados. None of those was achieved in that Test as Pakistan could just play 34.4 overs, crumbling for a mere 81 with seven batsmen registering single-digit scores.

When it was expected that spinners would rule the roast, they didn’t even bowl one over on the final day (how often do you see that!). Shannon Gabriel, Jason Holder and Alzarri Joseph combined to take ten wickets to hand Windies a memorable win.