“Pakistan have got a habit of coming back in the last session. Everybody bowled well, we fielded well - everything was perfect,” Waqar Younis said after the match.
It was a comeback typical of the Pakistan side.
Pakistan played only two Tests on their 2001 tour of England, and the hosts had comfortably beaten Waqar's side by an innings and nine runs in the first match. Alec Stewart's team looked set to seal the series as they comfortably reached 196/2 in their chase of 370.
But by opting to bat out a draw and signalling their defensive approach on the final day, they had already given Pakistan a sniff. A sniff was all the Pakistan team of that era needed. Waqar, Wasim Akram and even Saqlain Mushtaq, all bowled with a single-minded intent of picking up wickets, and tumble they did in the most absorbing of final sessions at Old Trafford.
Waqar triggered the great collapse, getting rid of Graham Thorpe with one that shaped to come in but held its line. The off stump cartwheeled a distance as Thorpe's defensive stroke met with thin air and Pakistan knew they had opened up the flood gates.
From 196/2, England were skittled out for 261 as four batsmen fell to no-balls, undetected by the umpires in the ensuing mayhem.
As the ground buzzed with vuvuzelas and Old Trafford was flooded in a sea of green, Pakistan had completed another epic comeback.
