On This Day: February 12, 1961 - Mushtaq Mohammad becomes the (then) youngest Test centurion

[Khabri420]

On Feb 12, 1961 Mushtaq Mohammad became the then youngest player to score a century in Test Cricket.

Mushtaq Mohammad achieved this feat against India in the 5th test of the series between India and Pakistan at Feroz Shah Kotla (Delhi), scoring 101. While India amassed 463 runs in the 1st innings, it was Mushtaq Mohammad's century that helped lead Pakistan's reply. In the grand scheme of things, it importantly allowed Pakistan to ensure a draw and tried test series (0-0)

Match in Discussion: http://www.espncricinfo.com/ci/engine/current/match/62887.html

 

[umerz]

He was a very good all rounder and an intelligent captain which makes him a world class player

 

[Khaseer]

legendary pakistan player. just feels hes underappreciated.

 

[murphyslaw79]

Agree that he has been underappreciated.

He was the 1st captain who had an attacking mindset, and did not like playing for a draw.

Captained Pakistan 19 times, with 8 wins, 4 losses and 7 draws and these were his series results

1. NZ - 2-0 (home)
2. Aus - 1-1 (away)
3. WI - 1-2 (away)
4. Ind - 2-0 (home)
5. NZ - 1-0 (away)
6. Aus -1-1 (away)

As captain he averaged 33, compared to a career average of 39.

as a bowler, he took 38 wickets at 29, which is on par with this career bowling average.

The real surpising stat is as non captain, he only won 1 test match out of 38, drew 24 and lost 13.

his batting average as non captain was 42 and a bowling average of 28.

In all matches that he won. 9 in total and he was captain for 8 he averaged 56 with the bat and 20 with the ball.

The one game that he won as non captain, he scored 201 in the 1st innings and took 7 wickets in 21 overs over both innings (2 and 5).

 

[MenInG]

Under appreciated captain Mushtaq

 

[The_Odd_One]

Very underrated cricketer

 

[Bouncer]

I first read about it in an old cricket magazine from 80's and first thing that caught my attention was the fact that he hit 19 4's in his hundred, which was almost 76% of his scoring shots.

The series is described in great detail by Fazal Mohammad's biography which is one of the best biographies that I have read from an asian cricketer. He goes in details about how indian media and cricket administratives were trying to play psychological games with him and Pak team during that series and he how called them out on it as being an old pro he used to play with them during pre partition first class cricket tournaments. Really interesting book.

 

[Markhor]

Great captain. He took no nonsense from the Aussies when we toured there in 1976-77 and is the only Pakistani skipper to get a good Test series result down under.