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

[Zainub]

Originally Posted by Wisden Cricket Info Match Bulletin by S Rajesh

Earlier, the morning session had been completely soporific, thanks to some inexplicably defensive batting by Pakistan. The chief culprit today was Abdul Razzaq, who plodded aimlessly throughout the morning session and remained unbeaten on 4 off an unbelievable 76 balls. Almost as if chastised for his hopeless hoick off Shane Warne in the first innings at Perth, Razzaq went into self-denial mode, blocking delivery after delivery – half-volleys were defended back to the bowler, short ones outside off were left alone, and balls on leg stump were played straight to the fielders. It would have been a commendable effort if Pakistan had been battling save a game; here, with Pakistan in an excellent position to rest the initiative, it was completely senseless.

Senseless it was. I mean, whatever was he thinking? There must have been something going on his mind, some plan, some sort of strategy. If anyone at all can figure out what it was, please be kind enough to tell every one else , since I can already see very well that S Rajesh from cricket info, and the entire commentary team at Channel 9 did not quite figure out why at there was any need for Razzaq to curb his natural game in this fashion, especially considering the position of the game at that stage. I too failed to see the wisdom behind such negative batting.

And it effectively helped Australia, as they played and mastered the waiting game bowling us out for less than 350 runs on a very good batting pitch, and we can only look back on what could have been...We did though, came back and bowled well. For which credit is due.

Shoaib Akhtar bowled exteremely well throughout to pick up Hayden [who was out foxed in my opinion, and is now of coarse Shoaib's bunny having got out to him 3 times in this series ;-) ] Ponting [who fell to the old fashion two men back for the hook plan] and Lehman [who was hurried on a bit into playing that one, and caught extremely well by Yasir Hameed - I must admit we have bowled exteremly well to Lehman in this series so far, attacking his leg stump from the very on set, and never letting him dominate, with Simon Katich knocking at the door, I do feel he will find him self under increased pressure to score some runs in the 2nd innings].

Danish Kanerai too continued to impresse everyone. In his customary column for the BCC Website, Langer wrote admirably about Kaneria, and it was pleasing for me to see he made such an impact on him and the Australian team as a whole. The comment in particular where he said Kaneria "looked destined to become a world class leg spinner" was for my money a very big compliment.

And makes me even more confident about us having some thing of a chance in this test. Langer's dismissal today in particular was a good reward for persistance, Kaneria kept bowling him that line, and asked the question if he wanted to sweep, Langer did with success a few times, but on that ocasion he top edged and was caught well at 45 for a well grafted 50. And Australia were in trouble from there on in again.

There was some very good test cricket that contributed later to the dismissal of Michael Clarke for 20. He was having a very competetive mini battle with Kaneria on one hand and on the other Sami was troubling him considerably with his inswingers. After being given not out twice despite being clearly Lbw at 9 (not offering a shot to a inswinging delivery that hit Clarke's pads in line with off stump and was hitting off stump as well) and 13 (pretty much an identical deliver, the only difference being Clarke this time did make an attempt to play a shot, there might have been an inside edge, but replays were inconclusive to suggest that confirmly, and for my money this was out as well) he finally ran out of look as he miscued one from Kaneria to Shoaib Akhtar at long of.

Damien Martyn on the other hand was batting exteremly well, and looked his very usual assured and classy self at the crease. He is so good to watch when he plays like this, which he has been alround the year basically. And as the cliche' goes "what a difference a year makes". Same time last year Martyn was struggling for big scores on flat home pitches when almost every other batsmen from his and the opposition team had racked up a few. He'd not scored a hundred for over 2 years and there were people who thought he should have been dropped. BBC Sport I remember did a feature on him, and declared rather harshly that his career at that stage was on "crossroads". But Australia persisted with him, and how well has he responded to that faith.

Back to the match, Gilchrist too has raced to a start of 26 not out and this looks a very dangerous partnership indeed. This test match for my money, might well be decided in the first half and hour or so tomorrow morning. If we allow these two to get into any more momentum then they already have, we could be in for a torrid time for the rest of the day. We must break this partnership. We must. That will aboslutely crucial to our chances. I can't stress that enough - it will be match deciding in my opinion. If one of these get a hundred it will be very difficult for the realist to see see us winning, the idealist though, can always hope.

Stumps, Day 2: Australia 5 for 203 (Martyn 67*, Gilchrist 26*) trail Pakistan 341 (Youhana 111, Younis 87, Butt 70) by 138 runs

ps: of caorse, I also have to admit, that my sugestion that Kaneria should be dropped prior to this test was categorically incorrect.

[King Aragorn]

Here goes Woolmer's explanation of Razzaq's extravagent innings of 4 not out:

Originally Posted by Bob Woolmer

Not easy to give you much more than my own opinion. I believe Abdul set out to see off th enew ball and then wickets fell and he was caught in no mans land not knowing if to attack or defend! It is one of those horrible times when things do not gi right. He sat in the dressing room unable to come to terms with what happened but I have experienced this twice before and it is one of those moments in a cricket match which makes the game unique.

[Maranello]

Good effort by Pakistan to get so far.

Batting
Razzy's innings was unfathomable, he played the whole day as if in a daze. After watching Razzy's heroics, I was speechless for a while. Really, I can't remember the last time an established international cricketer played like such a fool. No blame to Kamran Akmal, he did what he could and got some useful runs. Sami defended well, was unlucky to get out to a low full-toss that was missing the wickets (but out by the new Laws). Shoaib and Kaneria...well I never expected great things from the bat from them both. But Mr Razzaq is a different matter.... what was he on? And more importantly, why wasn't he told to bat properly and get some runs? There was a drinks break during the session, there were other opportunities, why didn't Woolmer send in a chap with some gloves to tell Razzaq what to do, and stop wasting good half volleys.

Bowling
The bowlers made a good start, some near misses, a few oohs and aahs outside off-stump from both Shoaib and Sami. And a few dropped chances as well as wrong umpiring decisions. Still, the line was led excellently by Shoaib Akhtar and great support from Kaneria. Those calling for Danny's head have been made to look as foolish as I always thought they were! You don't drop your second strike bowler after he did quite well at Perth just because you want to include a slogger in Afridi.

Particularly impressed with Shoaib's bowling, like Perth, he has been instrumental in putting the fear of God into the Aussie batsmen, making all of them bar Martyn look ordinary against good pace. In fact, if Pakistan still had a quality attack of Waqar and Wasim, Australia would find batting quite difficult. It seems their "batting strength" is built on the fact that no team apart from Australia has a decent fast bowling attack. And as Kumble and Harbhajan showed, they are suspect against quality spin too - greatest side in the history of the game? Not by a long mile... just the most brilliantly aggressive, and sometimes the most boorish.

Anyway, back to Shoaib...

Originally Posted by Wisden cricinfo Verdict

But Martyn and Langer's counterattack was repelled to some extent by a willing attack, led - shockingly - with maturity by Shoaib. The run-up was still long, the showmanship was too, and the stamina was still poor. But these distractions mask a growing threat. There was a time, when with Waqar Younis and Wasim Akram were on their last legs, Shoaib's career was more talk than deeds. In 2001, he had taken 50 wickets in 17 Tests leading many to believe, justifiably, that he was little more than hype.

But since becoming, unequivocally Pakistan's leading strike bowler, he has thrived. It isn't only that he has taken over 90 wickets at less than 18 since then. It is that he has taken them against all opposition and in all conditions, bar one series. He failed against India's star-studded line-up earlier this year, but he isn't the first and he won't be the last to do that. At Perth, he was the one bowler who looked capable of taking a wicket, and until Danish Kaneria found his rhythm and confidence today, he seemed the only one again. He cut down the pace fractionally, to the benefit of his control. And he wasn't able to generate as much reverse-swing as often and willfully as his predecessors did, but in taking the wickets of Matthew Hayden and in particular Darren Lehmann, he revealed some brain to go with the undoubted brawn. And it takes some bowler to dominate - and border on intimidating - Hayden.

His bowling, and Kaneria's guile later, lit up another riveting and competitive day of cricket.

So guys, hands off Kaneria, and hands off Shoaib. Yes, his stamina is poor, so he could bowl in one innings at Perth, but Shoaib for one innings is still much better than Khalil or Naved-ul-Hasan for two! And he did bowl his fair share of overs both today and on the first day at the WACA, and bowled them very well. Just needs more support from Sami and Razzy.

Overall
Match in the balance, as a Pakistan supporter I am more than happy that we have competed for two whole days. Quite possible that Australia will still win, but as I said yesterday, I would mind that even less than I usually do

Pakistan need to restrict Australia below 300 to have a chance, and that means getting Gilchrist early on. On the other hand, Australia have two set batsmen in Martyn and Gilchrist, with Martyn batting beautifully, so they will back themselves to still rack up a sizeable lead, and bat for most of the third day. Enthralling contest, which Perth definitely was not.

On a somewhat unrelated point, the umpiring needs to improve. Whoever said Koertzen was one of the best in the world has not seen him recently; first he gives Yasir out LBW on a ball sailing over the stumps. Then he thinks Clarke not out when it was plumb! Even the Australian commentators on Channel Nine couldn't fathom his flawed decision making. Two crucial decisions, both wrong, both favouring Australia - at the very least, he could be consistent with his mistakes!

[King Aragorn]

I am myself very pleased at this great change in Shoaib Akhtar's attitude. He seems to be working hard for the team and the results are indeed coming. Even in the run up row, he did say that he would do whatever he can to tackle the problem of the over rate on his part which I think shows that he is getting more responsible. He isn't going to shorten his run-up, but he understands this his run up is causing this problem to the team so he will do this and this to eliminate the problem. Wonderful.

The umpiring has indeed been dodgy. Umpiring errors are to quite an extent unavoidable these days. Umpires do have a tardy time out there but just one way traffic is what I do not like. Yasir Hameed didn't look like doing anything in the first innings but who knows what could have happened had he stayed...some inspiration from Butt, some "I've had enough of McGrath, I'm goong after him" ( ) or any little factor could have possibly changed something and he might have madea good enough contribution. But alas, the umpire sent him packing.

Sami too got Clarke twice today but the umpire didn't feel like giving the wonder boy out. In the end it did not do extensive damage but in another situation, it might have been very different.

[Beny]

I'll bet money the game gets washed out. Lots of rain.


Anyway. Clarke is a bit of a worry. Get him in the nets with Lee and Tait I say.

I was absoultly disgusted with Aktars wickets. Probebly three of the worst bowls in the series and he gets wickets for them. What's worse was seeing him fly around as if he was the best bowler in the world.

[fair_&_balance]

This is so great about this Australian team.There is always some Lehman,martyn,Poting ,
Langer or Gilchrist to get them out of whole.

I hate it.

Once they concede very little lead to Pakistanis,There will be collapse in pakistani batting lineup and they will win it.
Same old story.

[Beny]

I belive We've lost another 2 wickets early this morning in the 45 mins of Uninterupted play we've had. Martyn still there though.

[Maranello]

Excellent hundred yet again from Martyn. He really does bat like an Asian, eg Zaheer, Azhar, Laxman or Youhana! Wristy, timing, class...!

[Maranello]

Originally Posted by Beny

I was absoultly disgusted with Aktars wickets. Probebly three of the worst bowls in the series and he gets wickets for them. What's worse was seeing him fly around as if he was the best bowler in the world.

Sure but it was the pressure built up by all the previus deliveries that got Hayden, not the actual delivery, there was also a dropped catch from the first delivery of that over, Hayden was all at sea to Akhtar long before the actual ball that got him. So the pace and the bouncers did him in.

Same with Ponting's dismissal, he was softened up by balls at his body by Akhtar, real aggressive stuff and so got out to a poor hook shot at another short one.

As we discussed elsewhere, difficult to judge the full story from the highlights; its all about the pressure that leads to the wicket-taking ball!

[Beny]

Just turned the tv on to see Gillespie hit Sami for 6!


Aus 8/350