Rashid Latif came into the series with a load of baggage: he was replacing Moin Khan behind the stumps, he was playing his first international game in three years, and he had been a key witness in the Justice Qayyum investigation into match-fixing, and was now playing alongside several players who had been variously penalised. Latif didn't seem out of place, though, hitting a vital first-innings 71 in this Test to help set it up for Pakistan, and taking seven catches.
Waqar Younis, Pakistan's new captain, had to, per custom, fend off rumours of discord before the series. He had led in just one Test previously, against Zimbabwe in 1993. Then, standing in for Wasim Akram, he had been Pakistan's youngest Test captain. At Old Trafford, he got England sliding when they looked set to draw at 201 for 2 in the fourth innings: the second delivery he bowled with the second new ball sent Graham Thorpe's off stump cartwheeling.
Wasim Akram almost did not make it to England; after much debate among the selectors, he had to get the PCB chairman's casting vote to make the squad. In this Test he struck key blows in both innings. In the first, he athletically ran Graham Thorpe, who had made a century, out and triggered a slide of 8 for 75. In the second, he accounted for Marcus Trescothick, who had made 117, getting him to glove a short one on leg stump behind. This time England lost 8 for 60 and the match.
Inzamam-ul-Haq Two months before the England series, Pakistan had fallen to an innings-and-185-run defeat against New Zealand in Hamilton to let go of a 1-0 series lead. Inzamam was captain in that Test, standing in for the injured Moin Khan. If that had affected him, he showed little sign of it here, hitting 114 and 85 in Pakistan's own series-squaring victory, and topping the run charts for the series. The Man of the Match here, he reached the landmark of 5000 runs during the Test.
Saqlain Mushtaq had been left out at Lord's in favour of Shoaib Akhtar. Back in the side here, in the first innings he got two tailenders. In the second, he had no wicket in 40 overs - understandably, as his primary task on day five was to stop England scoring, after Marcus Trescothick and Mike Atherton's brisk start on the fourth evening meant they needed 285 off 90. In his 41st over, Saqlain had Alec Stewart lbw, the first of four strikes in seven overs to seal a 108-run, series-levelling win for Pakistan.
David Shepherd, and his West Indian colleague Eddie Nicholls, had a bit of a shocker as the match neared its conclusion, missing a series of front-foot no-balls off which wickets fell. Nicholls did not spot Wasim Akram overstepping when he had Nick Knight lbw for a golden duck; Shepherd was on duty for the next three, all off Saqlain Mushtaq, which claimed Ian Ward, Andy Caddick and Dominic Cork. Shepherd later described the match as his "lowest point".
Darren Gough was last man out (a ball after this photo was taken), signalling the end of a sprightly run from England in which they had beaten Zimbabwe and West Indies at home, and Pakistan and Sri Lanka away. Once he was caught at cover, Old Trafford was a sea of Pakistan flags (despite Nasser Hussain's call before the series for British Asians to support the home side). There was small consolation for Gough, though: he had become the eighth Englishman to 200 Test wickets.
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