Tail wagging the dog

Sri Lanka's win at Trent Bridge to level the series was largely due to England being clueless against Muttiah Muralitharan. But forget not Chaminda Vaas's contribution - with the bat, not ball - right through the series. He finished with an average of 92, passed 30 five out of six times, and remained unbeaten on four occasions. The tail rallied around him, bailed Sri Lanka out of a near-impossible situation at Lord's, and added 126 runs for the last four wickets - the first six had added 105 - at Trent Bridge to post their only respectable first-innings total of the series. This week we look at instances where the tail out-performed the top order with the bat.

Trailing 0-1 on the 1955-56 tour of Pakistan, New Zealand made a strong comeback in the second Test at Lahore by scoring 348 in the first innings and then reducing Pakistan to 87 for 5. Pakistan lost another wicket at 110 before Imitaz Ahmed joined Waqar Hassan. Together they added 308 runs for the seventh wicket, the highest partnership for Pakistan for any wicket at the time and still their highest seventh-wicket stand. During the course of Waqar's 189, he broke the national record for highest individual Test innings only to lose it hours later, when Imtiaz became his country's first double-centurion. Imtiaz would be the only wicketkeeper to score a double-hundred till 1980 when Taslim Arif scored 210 not out against Australia. Imtiaz took Pakistan to 561, their highest score at the time, and they proceeded to win the Test and their first series.

Australia's fightback from 0-2 down to win the 1936-37 Ashes began with Don Bradman's shrewd captaincy at the MCG. Both teams had declared their first innings closed - unusual for a Timeless Test - Australia on 200 for 9 and England on 76 for 9, still 124 runs behind. On a pitch ravaged by rain and sun - Wisden described it as a glue pot - Bradman reversed the batting order in the second innings. After the tail had played the early overs, Bradman joined Jack Fingleton when Australia were 97 for 5. Normally these two would share a second-wicket stand but this time they added 346 runs for the sixth. Australia set England a mammoth 689 and eventually won by 365 runs.

The first Test of the inaugural Asian Test Championship in 1999 at Eden Gardens began with Pakistan collapsing to 26 for 6 in nine overs. Moin Khan battled for four-and-a-half hours for 70 and pushed the score to 185. India were cruising at 147 for 2 but Shoaib Akhtar silenced an estimated 100,000 people with consecutive yorkers that uprooted Rahul Dravid and Sachin Tendulkar. India collapsed to 223 and a resurgent Pakistan replied with 316. Two riots interrupted India's chase, one after Tendulkar was run-out following a collision with Shoaib and another as India were on the brink of defeat. Pakistan eventually won in front of empty stands as the public were ousted from the stadium.

Seven years later at Karachi, Kamran Akmal, another wicketkeeper, rescued Pakistan from 39 for 6 against India with a breathtaking hundred. But this time no riots marred a famous Pakistan win.

In ODIs, India's recovery from 17 for 5 to 266 for 8 - thanks to Kapil Dev's inspirational 175 off 138 balls - against Zimbabwe in the 1983 World Cup ranks as the best tail-end performance of all time. A more recent Indian recovery from 35 for 5 to 249 for 9 against South Africa at Hyderabad is ranked at second place.

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