Faisalabad's result rarity

After the draw at Lahore, both players and spectators will hope that the Faisalabad pitch will be conducive to a result

20-Jan-2006

Inzamam-ul-Haq scored two hundreds in his last Test at Faisalabad © Getty Images

After the draw at Lahore, both players and spectators will hope that the Faisalabad pitch will be conducive to a result. History suggests that the chance of a result is about 50%. In the 23 Tests at Faisalabad, 11 have produced a result while 12 have been drawn. Since 2000, only one of four Tests has ended in a result.

India have never won a Test here, losing one and drawing three of their four games. But Pakistan's record isn't much better. Since 1995, they have lost three, drawn as many, and won just one of seven Tests.

In the wake of all the bad publicity the pitch at Lahore got, the Faisalabad strip will be under intense scrutiny. If stats are an indicator then Shoaib and Co might prove to be a handful. Since 1995, spin has yielded 86 wickets at 38.07 and a strike rate of 81.26 while the fast bowlers have done far better: 150 wickets at an average of 26.13 and strike rate of 51.33.

Though Inzamam-ul-Haq missed a share of the Lahore spoils, he remains Pakistan's go-to man and his Faisalabad record is consistent with his career equivalent. He averages 52.27 at the venue and while that stat isn't extraordinary, India should remember it was here that Inzamam scored two hundreds in the same game in the recent series against England.

The toss didn't matter at all at Lahore, but how important will it be at Faisalabad? On 18 out of 23 occassions, the captain winning the toss has elected to bat but only five times has the team gone on to win while 11 games have been drawn. But given that since 2000, the average partnership for each wicket in the fourth innings is just 27.6, compared to the 44.8 in the third innings and 30-plus averages in the first two, teams will want to avoid batting last.

The four Pakistan v India encounters at Faisalabad have been high-scoring affairs, no surprise then that three have been drawn. On average 1218 runs have been scored per match, and the drawn matches have barely reached the fourth innings.

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George Binoy is editorial assistant of Cricinfo. For some of the stats he was helped by Arun Gopalakrishnan from Cricinfo's Chennai office.