Aus v Pak: Boxing Day Test (Dec 26-30), MCG

[Beny]

Pakistan finish the day at around about 301/6

[Zainub]

We finished on 318-6, losing both key players Youhann and Younis Khan towards the end. Youhanna fell for 111, well stumped of a leg stump full toss, a ball which he really shouldn't have got out to. But sublimely classy innings from him otherwise, full of delightful strokes, a pleasure to watch really. He's batted with a strike rate in the mid 80s, inlcuding four sixes of the slower bowlers and two biggies against Warnie. Some real good vaule for money for the 60,000 odd Victorians that turned up to watch (despite Mark Nicholas's suggestion that people in Australia were starting to lose interest in cricket!). This is the third striaght year when the Boxing Day test match witnessed a first day crowd of over 60,000. It was a fantastic atmosphere, and I have to say that the MCG is one of my most venetrated international cricket grounds. I can only imagine how much more nicer it will look once all the construction work is done away with.

Youhanna's dismissal started a sort of mini fight back by Australia towards the fag end of the day, after we'd won the first two session hand down thanks to Yousuf , Younis and Salman, whose courage and attitude I must say has not ceased to impresse me off late. He backed his ability, his strengths, and him self, flashing hard at anything out side off, and batted with a real sense of purpose. Got out very causually though. The mode of his dismissal perhaps was a timely reminder of the fact that he's still a very young lad, just 20 year-old, and the exuberance of youth can sometime make you do all sorts of things...in this case it some how made him run very, very casually and it cost what could have been a maiden test hundred. Hopefully he'll learn from this and not make this mistake again. We have far too many iffy runners in our team already, and we can't afford another, this types of mistakes are essentialy crimes, and for my money, they are best being nipped in the bud, before they can become a permenant habbit, like they have in some of our other players.

Back to tha match, Punter promted by the wicket of Youhanna took the new ball imediately. And it worked. rather well. Younis Khan nicked a good outswing from Dizzy to fell for an exteremely well made and well earned 87 - which is said to be an unlucky figure for Aussies. Soon after Shoaib Malik went to, he scored just 6 runs before edging to Punter at first slip who took the catch after a brief juggle of the bowling of Dizzy. Abdul Razzaq and Kamran Akmal played out the remaining overs until stumps with Akmal in particular playing a few positive strokes, and Razzaq looking much more watchful, though equally promising of making a few runs.

On a whole we did enough to take the honors on Day 1 in my very humble opinion. The last session really saw us losing a bit of momentum, but on the whole 318-6 is not a bad position to be in on good batting wicket after you've won the toss. Especially in the context of our recent performances. Pakistan one has to say have done immensely well to perform like they have after the disaster at Perth. It takes a lot of mental courage to fight back from these kind of situtations, esopecially if some people are burning effigies of your skipper back home and today we showed all those people what we are really made of. I'm proud of the way we've responded to all our critics. Hopefully, we can manage to stem the flow of the momentum Australia have gained with the 2nd new ball tomorrow.

This being our last recognized pair of batsmen is a very crucial partnership. And in order for us to get anything near a par first innings total on this surface (which I reckon is at least 400) one of these, most probably Razzaq, will definately have to get at least a fifty if not more. The rest of the guys listed in to come, have shown in the past, that they are no mugs, Sami in particular hangs around a fair bit, and if these two can manage to play out the new ball tomorrow, with people like Sami and Shoaib coming in, they'll have some support, if Razzaq gets in he can be pretty dangerous, you never know what can happen, we might have a chance of frustrating the Aussies a bit more than anyone expects us to. I'm keeping my fingers really very tightly crossed.

Go Pakistan!!!

[Zainub]

Originally Posted by fair_&_balance

can nayone find out what did Youhana eat today.

Don't know that for sure. But apparently Matty Hayden had too much Chirstmas Pudding at the official Australian Team Christmas Lunch on Saturday...he dropped a simple chance of Malik of the third ball of the day, and missed a two other slightly tougher ones as well. The ball seemed to follow him wherever he went.

[Zainub]

Originally Posted by Maranello

Younis Khan's innings has been special, simply because he has been excellent at finding fielders with all his positive attacking shots! This guy has an abolsute talent at hitting all sorts of shots off any delivery straight to the fielder. Even if there is one fielder covering a 30 yard area, no worries, Younis will find him with pinpoint accuracy. Apart from that, his attitude has been great, constantly talking to Yoyo, keeping the morale up, smiling in the face of adversity, and acting the class clown!

Yeah, he did seem to have found the fielders quite a fair bit today. But it didn't seem to frustrate him. He still got 87 runs, and I'll take that anyday, and you're so right about his attitude too. In general though, the whole team attitue was comendable, we saw the funny sides of a few things, and it seemed we were as a whole enjoying the whole thing. Really positve today's performance on a whole. I'm very pleased for us.

[King Aragorn]

All in all, a very good performance no doubt by Pakistan. It must have taken great courage and determination to break the shackles of the Perth debacle, the protests back home, the rising criticism and what not. Many fans, including me, did not like Inzi wanting the players to deal with the situation all by themselves. Some help from Bobby Simpson would have been a great help no doubt but in the end I must say, the Pakistani players did fight courageously and played throughout with a positive frame of mind. They did not defend all the time like they did in Perth but were aggressive from the very start. Salman Butt certainly showed that by slashing at everything that was wide, which was no doubt dangerous as he got a life when Hayden dropped him.

The loss of Younis and Malik just at the death was unfortunate. We dominated the game most of the time but let the initiative slip away at the end. Hopefully, with more exposure in tests and guidance from Woolmer, the batsmen will learn from their mistakes. As Woolmer has said many a times, playing against the very best is always useful even if you lose.

If Kamran and Razzaq can continue to garner some runs tomorrow and if Sami and Shoaib play like they did in Perth, something around 450 is certainly very much achievable.

[Maranello]

As is an early morning collapse to 330 all out! But even if the worse happens, Pakistani batsmen can hold their head high, they have stuck it out for over 90 overs against tough bowling and adverse conditions, with heaps of pressure. Well done!

[King Aragorn]

Originally Posted by Maranello

As is an early morning collapse to 330 all out!

Talking of Pakistan...of course! And I fear that there is a great chance of something like this happening tomorrow. The ball is new and is moving around a bit. Gillespie has utilised the movement very well and even Younis Khan and Malik had trouble dealing with him. Razzaq should not have too many problems as he is quite good against pace. He should not restrain him natural instinct this time round.

[Nikhil]

Looks like this test is heading for the same path as the last year's boxing day test match. India got off to a blinder of a start and lost Sehwag for 195 in the final overs. Ended day one in a very strong position at about 320 odd for four I believe. There after it all went downhill. I hope Pakistan put up a good fight, but they have let the initiative slip away.

I have not watched the match live, therefore can not comment on the state of the pitch, bowling and umpiring. But, unless Pakistan put up a total of above 400, it's going to be difficult IMO. It's going to be difficult, but the overnight pair has to apply themselves and dig in.

[Maranello]

You are right KA and Nikhil, a lot depends on the overnight pair. The second new ball is doing a lot more than the first, or actually, the Australians are bowling better with the second new ball, especially Gillespie. Salman Butt made them look ordinary earlier in the day.

Razzaq was very watchful which is ok but he should be aggressive tomorrow morning, playing his normal game. 20 minutes of Razzy doing what only he can do, and 400 will be within touching distance, and Australia will be demoralised. He should definitely make hay while Warne is not bowling to him.

On the bowling front Nikhil, Gillespie looked very good with the second new ball, and was probing throughout the day, Kaspa had some very good deliveries, but also some very loose ones, not all of them were punished, but many were. McGrath and Warne were not penetrative at all, Warne was made to look pedestrian, it was like the clock had rewound back to 1994 and Salim Malik was tonking him all over Pakistan! McGrath did not give away a lot of runs, but bowled like a "showpony" - ball after ball sailing harmlessly to the keeper outside off, batsman able to leave it on line as well as the length. Maybe he found Butt going after him off-putting. A very atypical performance from the big man, and he is bound to come back stronger tomorrow.

[Beny]

Well as I always say, never judge a 1st innings proformance until you've seen the second innings.