Crazy software engineers doing 10 Pushups Challenge for Pakistan Cricket Team win Test Match after 20years at Lords vs England 2016
Lord's, 1982. Pakistan's target to win the Test is a simple 76. Pakistan don't do simple. They do complex and unfathomable. It's the final session of the Test and rain clouds rush towards St John's Wood. Pakistan last won a Test in England 28 years earlier - Fazal Mahmood's match at The Oval. This win can shape history, be a catalyst for Imran Khan's new age. A win at Lord's, to follow humiliation in 1978 - and if there is one thing Imran can't stomach, it's humiliation. His every cell has pride stamped on it. This win will be a manifesto for pride-branded cricket. Yet the rain clouds are gathering and only 15 overs remain.
Pakistan's opener Mudassar Nazar holds the record for the slowest Test hundred. He doesn't appear, left in the pavilion to be satisfied with his surprise six wickets in the second innings. Imran places history in the hands of Mohsin Khan, to follow his dashing double-hundred in the first innings, and Javed Miandad. The rain clouds are in a rush, but Miandad and Mohsin are more urgent, scampering singles and thrashing boundaries. Pakistan win by ten wickets. Javed kisses the turf and runs for the pavilion. We are in the time of pitch invasions, and where better to sprint in triumph than at Lord's? Imran smiles for his statement victory.
England are back at full strength at Headingley to narrowly take the series. But nothing takes the edge off that first win at Lord's. Nothing. Lord's is the home of cricket and the ground to make history for England's opponents. Pakistan will never look back.
****
A decade later, another chase at Lord's. It is important. Pakistan are the ODI world champions. Winners over England at the Melbourne Cricket Ground in March, an iconic final in the history of one-day cricket. Wasim Akram's final, where he scores quick runs and conjures incredible wickets, blowing a hole in England's soul. In these undifferentiated days, the status of world champions in one-day cricket somehow implies superiority in Test cricket too. Pakistan feel the pressure of tackling their vanquished rivals so soon, of defending their world standing. In any case, this is England. And this is the home of cricket. That's pressure enough. Pakistan's captain, Miandad, knows all this and he has his pride too. The pride of Karachi, of never taking a backward step.
