Ex-Kiwi cricketer Young angry over rumours of wrong doing in historic win against Pak

WELLINGTON - Bryan Young, who led New Zealand to a historic victory in the third Test against Pakistan in 1994, is angered over rumours of wrong doing casting aspersions on then Pakistani players.

New Zealand, having been beaten by Pakistan in the first two tests of their tour in 1994, won the third match at Christchurch by five wickets.

Requiring a record fourth innings target of 324 to win, New Zealand got there on the back of centuries by Bryan Young and Shane Thomson, with five wickets to spare.

The Pakistani pace pair Wasim Akram and Waqar Younis had cut New Zealand to pieces at Eden Park and the Basin Reserve. In this case, rumours point that Pakistan didn’t try too hard.

“Missing a straight one, dropping a howler, throwing a ball 10 feet wide [3m] of the keeper when the batsman is stranded at the other end. All those things that are quite comical and actually happen anyway; all of a sudden when Pakistan do it, it’s ‘what’s going on there’?

“And the double travesty is it impacts on the other, or innocent party,” NZ Herald quoted Young, as saying.

Young’s experiences in that innings convince him Pakistan were working overtime to make it a clean sweep.

“I’ve never faced anything like it. Did I think there was anything happening? No. Was I trying my tits off every ball and ever think it was easy, or did Thommo and I ever say ‘gee, that’s strange’? No,” he said of the Pakistani pacers.

“Did Akram and Younis come down and abuse the living crap out of both of us when they couldn’t get us out, and have the sweat pouring off them as they were charging in at 90mph and hitting us at will? Yes.

“I was black and blue from my hip bone to beneath my arm pit. Thommo had a finger dislocated. We’re talking about a flat wicket and those guys could hit us when they wanted. If those guys weren’t trying, I don’t get it, I really don’t,” Young added. (ANI)