da brwin： Azhar Mahmood saved Pakistan from embarrassment withan unbeaten 80 after an unknown off-spinner wreckedtheir batting at Derby
Nigel Gardner09-May-2001Azhar Mahmood saved Pakistan from embarrassment withan unbeaten 80 after an unknown off-spinner wreckedtheir batting at Derby.Nathan Dumelow, a 20-year-old making his first-classdebut, took four wickets, three in 19 balls, as thetourists crashed from 101-1 to 182-9.But Mahmood and Shoaib Akhtar shared a last wicketstand of 80 to give Pakistan a lead of 96 and by theclose, Derbyshire were 66-2 in their second innings.As well as Mahmood batted, the day belonged to Dumelowwhose only other taste of senior cricket had come onMonday in the Benson & Hedges Cup at Leicester.To bowl for 22 overs unchanged against top players ofspin was a superb effort and he thoroughly deservedhis success after his second ball was hit for six byImran Farhat.He kept his nerve and flighted the ball to take theprize wickets of Yousuf Youhana and Inzamam-ul-Haqbefore he bowled Abdur Razzaq second ball for a duck.Derbyshire rate him highly and skipper Dominic Corksaid: “He is a wonderful talent. There are some goodplayers of spin among those victims.”Pakistan will be concerned at the way they struggledagainst a weakened county team but will be encouragedby the performance of Mahmood who played well in acrisis.Unfortunately there were some incidents off the fieldwhen a small number of Pakistan supporters wereejected from the County Ground after bottles werethrown from a stand.No one was hurt but the club’s chief executive JohnSmedley said: “We are sorry it came to this, I don’tthink anyone knows what started this off.”