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

[Beny]

Aus 38 runs in front with Gillespie getting 50.

Aktar with 5 and Kaneria with 6.

Salman but goes third ball. Another wicket from bad bowling.

PAK 1/0.

[King Aragorn]

When I left at lunch time last night, I didn't even dream of such a thing happening. Shoaib and Kaneria were firing...the Aussies had just lost Gilchrsit and Warne...the deficit was still big enough...pressure was being built on them...Shoaib was bending his back and firing on all cylinders...But then the usual twist takes place - Pakistan lets things slip and Australia grab the chance to turn the tables on their opponents. There is nearly always someone to bail Australia out from such a situation. Not a great bowling performance in the end from Pakistan and some brilliant batting by Martyn. Gillespie supported him well with a fifty.

And the Pakistani batting was worse. The players are no doubt very talented and there is a need for more exposure in test cricket and expert guidance from Woolmer for them to become great test players...but Imran Farhat just seems hopeless. When you have just lost your partner, when your team is trailing a total, when the wicket has deteriorated and you know it will be hard to bat on, instead of trying to build a partnership by taking singles, etc - you go for a big hoick against Australia's best bowler in the match. Superb stuff. Can't we even expect these batsmen to be patient and realise that so much depends on them?

More was expected from Younis Khan and Youhana as well. They knew the situation was dire and that they needed to stick around and build a pertnership. They didn't. Now Malik, Akmal and Razzaq are the only batsmen worth any mention. I do not expect any heroics from Akmal. Razzaq had problems with blood pressure, etc - will he be able to bat? It seems very difficult indeed. But if his condition improves and he can bat, then there is still some little hope. Razzaq can certainly stick around. His ability to do so was amply displayed by that notorious 4 not out of 76 balls. If he is a little less cautious, he can certainly make runs at a faster rate. After all, he was the highest scorer in the warm up games here. Malik has not been doing very well in Australia but one could expect him to play on a little bit and build on a total. He certainly has the temperament to do so if he doesn't hnag his bat outside off stump that often. Sami is out there now - can he do a Gillespie? He certainly has the ability to do so. We saw what he is capable of in Perth. The tables have been turned by Australia and Pakistan need an almighty effort here to turn things round to their own advantage.

[Maranello]

Pakistan batting
True, the batting display was insipid and irresponsible. Happens to teams such as Pakistan, used to happen frequently with England, and even in England's current 'professional' phase, it happened as recently as two days ago. So I would not blame Pakistan too much; yes they batted poorly the second time around, but, honestly, did we seriously expect them to win? Not really.

If Pakistan do stick it out for two sessions tomorrow, I will be well impressed; they would have taken the game well into Day 4, something not many neutrals were expecting. However, a collapse similar to the second morning, and to Perth, is also possible, and that would be galling.

There is a remote possibility that I can be proven wrong and Pakistan's last five wickets stick it out for a whole day. Against another team, eg England or India, that might even happen. Against Australia, it's so far-fetched that I consign it to the realms of wishful thinking.

Test cricket
We did expect some more fight from Pakistan than they showed whilst batting on the second morning, and whilst bowling on the third afternoon. Two sessions in which Australia get the better of Pakistan, and the other seven sessions, where Pakistan competed or were better, are irrelevant! That is the beauty of Test cricket :-)

So yes, KA, a big change in the match situation from when you left at lunch on Day 3, but the turnaround was not solely because Pakistan are mercurial and erratic; it was also because Australia are tremendous under fire, and primarily it was because cricket is a gloriously uncertain game! That is why we have more time for it than soccer, baseball, watching paint dry, dental appointments, rugby and other similarly boring prusuits :-)

Umpiring
Rudi Koertzen has upheld his high standards of umpiring in this Test, by making another anti-Pakistan decision, this time giving Youhana out when there was no bat! These ancient South Africans and Englishmen should be pensioned off; they are clearly not up to the mark. Four clear mistakes, all going against Pakistan, at crucial times in one Test - now that is too much even for a Saffer! The sooner we retire Shepherd, Koertzen & co, the better - Taufel, Dar and Haweye are the future!

[Maranello]

Originally Posted by Justin Langer

"For me, it's one of the great battles in Test cricket playing against Shoaib Akhtar," he said. "Today I reckon he bowled as fast as I've seen him bowl in all our confrontations. I've always said he's the fastest bowler I've ever faced and I reckon today, besides an over or two he bowled at the WACA four years ago, it was as quick as I've faced for a long time."

It was a great contest between the two, in particular the one over where we had a fair amount of verbals and aggression from both sides (more details here). This what Test cricket is all about. All good natured though, because Shoaib is not a malicious guy. He was the first to say well-played to Langer at his dismissal, and also had friendlier words with him when they walked off for the session breaks.

I agree that in the field Shoaib gives no quarter to the best batsmen, but IMO he is a gentleman off it. Even on the field, many times he has shied away from bowling the short, nasty stuff to tailenders, even giving away needless runs by trying to york them and ending up with half volleys and full tosses. This is because he is on record as saying that he does not feel comfortable with attacking helpless batsmen, whether tailenders, or people from the "minor countries" eg Bangladesh, Namibia (the two matches I can recall).

[King Aragorn]

It's true that we didn't expect them to show another heroic batting display bhai, but still, it's one thing getting out on good balls but throwing away your wicket recklessly is another. It is very frustrating indeed. I want to see them to prize their wicket rather than gift it on a platter to the opponents. But then, it is not all their fault. They come from a domestic system which does not in any way prepare them for the 'horrors' to come. I hope that will come as they gain experience.

I also hope that the umpirirng standards improve. ICC has turned a blind eye towards Shepherd, Bucknor, Koertzen and all the oldies out there. They are after all human being and they should not officiate games only because they 'used to be' great umpires - no resting on past glories. We need to see their present condition and the present standard of umpiring. They are ageing which affects their reflexes et al. Aleem Dar, Taufel and co. are indeed the future. It's time the old guard said goodbye!

[Beny]

Come on people. Everybody gets bad decisions. It's a part of the game.

Once again I did'nt see much of the game but praise goes to Martyn and Kaneria for two very fine profomances.

[King Aragorn]

Originally Posted by Beny

Come on people. Everybody gets bad decisions. It's a part of the game.

I do agree that such umpirring decisions are part and parcel of the game and but I am afraid that what happened in MCG recently negates your second sentence, "Everybody gets bad decisions."

That is exactly what frustrated me. Australia did not get any bad decisions while Pakistan was at the receving end of nearly six. I'm not the one who believes this to be bias against subcontinental teams, etc...but whatever the 'reason' for all wrong decisions by Koertzen going against Pakistan, they did damage Pakistan's chances of putting up an even greater fight, if not Pakistan's chances of a win - though that may be a bit far-fetched.

Originally Posted by Cricinfo Bulletin by S Rajesh

Ponting was extremely lucky to survive an lbw shout off Kaneria when on 22 – Rudi Koertzen had earlier given Kamran Akmal out off a similar delivery by Shane Warne, but this time ruled in the batsman's favour.

Koertzen certainly seems to be confused out there doesn't he? Why such inconsistency on the very same day? Making a mistake, Beny, is one thing but such, if I may put it bluntly, double standards is another.

Umpires like Bucknor and Shepherd have been making lots more mistakes these days. Koertzen seems to be vying to join them in this list of oldies for whom it's time to retire. For how much more time is the ICC going to tolerate this?

I very much understand and accept that it is very hard for umpires to officiate out there and wrong decisions can be given now and then but a one way road is what I dislike. The inconsistency and different decisions for different teams, as shown to some extent by Koertzen today (for whatever reason(s) ), is what's bad.

[Shaka]

There are certain umpires I don't like to see officiating in Pakistan games, Koetzer, Darryl Hair, Darryl Harper to name a few. That said, I don't want to dwell on it too much as it was a minor issue in this series because of the gulf between the two sides.

I feel that the big difference between the two sides has been the batting. Aussie batsmen are all well seasoned pro's whereas we have too many very green youngsters with obvious batting faults which need addressing. Imran Farhat's hooking technique being a case in point, I have seen him hook high and aimlessly plenty of times in the past.

Will address this issue more thoroughly later on but I am full of flu at the moment so I'm off to rest.

[fair_&_balance]

Originally Posted by Shaka

There are certain umpires I don't like to see officiating in Pakistan games, Koetzer, Darryl Hair, Darryl Harper to name a few. That said, I don't want to dwell on it too much as it was a minor issue in this series because of the gulf between the two sides.

I feel that the big difference between the two sides has been the batting. Aussie batsmen are all well seasoned pro's whereas we have too many very green youngsters with obvious batting faults which need addressing. Imran Farhat's hooking technique being a case in point, I have seen him hook high and aimlessly plenty of times in the past.

Will address this issue more thoroughly later on but I am full of flu at the moment so I'm off to rest.

I agree with the difference in Batting powers of both team. Also it is rare to see Pakistani batsmen batting well in 2 inning of a test match. If you did well in one inning you can bet that they will mess up in 2nd.

But I fail to understand what was the reason going into a test match with just 3 bowler ( OK...3.5 if you cant Razzaq a test match bowler). If you 6 batsmen cant do it 7th wont help either.

[Zainub]

After the test in Perth, my impression was that we as a collective team lacked both the mental and physical edge of a successful side. Now that belief has further strengthen as I witnessed us losing a match we were ahead at for the greater part of two and half days. In the first innings, after the top and middle order had done all the hard work to set up the innings for match winning 1st innings total the lower order succumbed to the 2nd new ball and we made only 341 when we could and should have got at least something in the region of 380-400. In Australia’s first innings too after Shoaib and Kaneria had done all the hard work required to remove more than half of the Australian line up with still a lead of 100 odd runs, we allowed Australia to come back and post a total that proved to be decisive in the end. From then on it was always playing catching up, and we've never been good in that.

This habit of throwing away the momentum in the opposition's favor is in my humble opinion more out of a mental flaw than anything else. It's due to a lack of belief in our own potential, which makes these losses even hared to cope with. This is proving to be steep, and very, very testing learning curve for the side. I'm extremely disappointed with our levels of fitness in particular. They've deteriorated badly as the tour has progressed. I still don't know if Razzaq (suffering from dizziness, and blood pressure related problems, he was admitted to hospital again after the end of the test match where he underwent further tests)will be fit for the Sydney test match, and Inzi (back injury) ‘s participation too still is a doubt. They’re both expected to give a fitness test. I hope, that for once, we don't play them unless they are absolutely sure they will be available to us for all 5 day of a test match. No point in playing some one who is not 100% fit and risk your self to being a couple of men down like we were in this test match.

Sami and Shoaib Malik are already confirmed to be out of the next test. We will miss both immensely. Malik has been our best batsmen this season and his off spinners (even though there is some doubt to weather he would have bowled because of concerns surrounding his action) could have come into play. Sami is always a threat no matter what his figurers might suggest. He's played a handful of test matches and up till now his averages and stats in general are far, far from flattering languishing in the 40s. It’s alright for everyone to demand an improvement, I’d love too see him step up as well, but it’s extremely hard to neglect the fact that he has been terribly unlucky in his short career so far.

Any one who has seen these last couple of test matches, and who watches Pakistan cricket regularly will now that he is the unluckiest bowler in our team. He seems to get the most incorrect umpiring calls, and seemingly endless number of catches go down of his bowling. I remember seeing Shoaib Akhtar earlier in his career probably around 1999-2000 when he seemed frustrated because quite few catches were going down of his bowling. He soon learned like do most fast bowlers from our country that the fielders here are not as reliable as elsewhere, so the best option is to look for wickets your self, LBWs and bowled. Just look at the percentage of those two dismissals in Wasim and Waqar's wickets, and that tells you the story. If those two had Shane Warne and Mark Waugh standing to them in the slips, at least one of them could have taken 500 test wickets as Glenn McGrath is now threatening to.

Nevertheless, there is no point in my opinion on looking back on this test match as something that could have been, of coarse there were missed opportunities that we must rue but more important for us right now is to take heart out of the fact that we showed an overall improvement in every department as compared to Perth. Hopefully that improvement will continue in Sydney, which is expected traditionally to be a turner later on, and from what I saw last year an extremely good surface to bat on. I hope we win the toss and get 500. The rest, we'll take it one from there.

COMMON PAKISTAN!!!

Cheers!