OTD | Pakistan surrendered to one of Ian Botham’s finest all-round performances in Test cricket

It was the 2nd Test match of the series between hosts England and Pakistan at the Lord’s in England in June 1978. The match witnessed a legendary all-round performance from one of the greatest all rounders in the history of cricket Ian Botham. It won’t be wrong to say that he single-handedly destroyed the Pakistan team with both bat and ball.

First, he smashed a wonderful century and scored 108 runs off just 110 balls, however, that wasn’t enough as in Pakistan’s 2nd innings he picked 8 wickets and was named Player of the Match for his outstanding all-round performance. Meanwhile, talking about the entire match, England skipper Mike Brearley won the toss and elected to bat first. 

But, initially, the decision proved wrong as they lost their first 2 batters on the score of just 19 runs. However, Graham Gooch (54 runs off 91 balls) and David Gower (56 runs off 76 balls) steadied the ship and stitched a wonderful 101-run stand for the 3rd wicket. Later, Graham Roope also showed his batting skills and smashed a half-century.

This was only Botham’s 7th Test 

However, what grabbed the most attention was Botham’s quick century. He smashed 108 runs from 110 balls which included 12 fours and 1 six which helped the team to achieve a total of 364 runs in the first innings. Liaqat Ali and Iqbal Qasim both picked up 3 wickets each for Pakistan.

Coming to bat, Pakistan were bundled out for just 105 runs as they had no answers in front of English speedster Bob Wills who picked up a fifer in just 13 overs. The Pakistani team couldn’t even avoid the follow-on and were asked to bat again. But this time they had to face the wrath of Botham’s swinging deliveries.

Pakistan kept losing wickets at regular intervals of time as Botham was almost impossible to play with the ball swinging all over the place. He ended up picking 8 wickets while conceding just 34 runs in 20.3 overs he bowled which is still the best bowling figure in Test at Lord’s. With the brilliant all-round performance by England, Pakistan were defeated by an innings and 120 runs.