Australian players celebrating after taking a wicket against Pakistan. Image Source: Cricket Australia[/caption]Internet Desk: Australia's expected push to victory after dominating most of the first three days in Brisbane was forestalled by some unexpectedly stern Pakistan batting resistance when it was least expected.
When Steve Smith declared his team's second innings closed during the dinner break, and condemned Pakistan to start their notional pursuit of 490 against a refreshed pace attack armed with a shiny new ball under the Gabba flood-lights.
The very same scenario in which the visitors had succumbed so meekly the previous evening, losing 7-24 in an epic collapse in their first outing against the pink ball in Australian Test match conditions.
And which led their coach Mickey Arthur to suggest that day-night Test cricket did not provide a level playing field, as it was vastly more difficult to begin an innings under lights than it was to get started in bright sunlight.
However, the clatter of wickets the Australians had sought and the Gabba crowd expected failed to materialise and Pakistan restart in the morning with eight wickets intact.
And the victory assignment reduced to a mere 420 runs. Or to survive a minimum of 180 more overs (Brisbane weather permitting) to wrestle a draw from a match they had effectively surrendered the evening prior.
With neither of those distant batting feats having been achieved on Australian soil in almost 140 years to that point.
But for the first time in the Test, the tourists showed a preparedness to take the fight to their hosts as the aforementioned openers Sami Aslam and Azhar Ali put together a watchful opening partnership of 31 from 11 and a half overs.
And the forecast of potential showers and possibly a thunderstorm tomorrow and Monday possibly adding to their resolve that a draw was a faint possibility.
Aslam was the first to succumb to the battle with patience when he flashed a drive at Mitchell Starc only to see the ball disappear into the reassuringly safe hands of Matthew Renshaw at slip.
Then, as the clock ticked past the scheduled time for stumps but the players stayed put to try and make up the shortfall of overs bowled, Babar Azam fell victim to the new ball.
Not the shiny one fresh out of its box, but the replacement version that was sought when the original was found to be out of shape.
Which failed to spin anything like its predecessor, which might have accounted for Babar's dismissal as he pushed at the second delivery from Lyon with the auxiliary orb and edged to slip as it went straight on with the bowler's arm.
However, Pakistan's stumps score of 2-70 was as refreshing as it was emboldening given the manner in which they had capitulated on Friday evening, and in light of the now familiar manner in which the day had started for Pakistan.
Resuming their first innings at 8-97 and a distant 332 runs adrift of Australia, Pakistan's innings ended with them carrying a slightly bitter aftertaste of umpiring controversy.
The initial burst coming when tailender Mohammad Amir was adjudged, upon review despite the decided disinterest of bowler Jackson Bird, caught behind from what the batsman clearly believed was a glancing blow to his elbow.
English umpire Richard Illingworth was of the view it had not brushed the bat, but Steve Smith referred the matter to a higher authority – third umpire S Ravi from India, in the grandstand – following lengthy counsel with his 'keeper Matthew Wade.
Despite the tell-tale white dot that glowed from Amir's inside edge upon application of the Hot Spot technology, the batsman was unwilling to leave the field pointing at his elbow on his way back to the dressing room as if he had again been the victim of some moral injustice.
Four overs later umpire Ravi was again in the spotlight, when a direct hit on the bowler's end stumps from David Warner elicited the obligatory video referral even though batsman Rahat Ali and the nearby Australian fielders felt he had safely recovered his ground.
The footage, studied in forensic detail by umpire Ravi, showed Rahat's bat was indeed over the line but looked to have bounced marginally off the turf as he scrambled to safety and may not have been in contact with terra firma when the bails were dislodged.
With the decision ultimately falling in favour of the fielding side who celebrated their eventual 287-run lead by opting not to enforce the follow-on and instead grant their fast bowlers a rest from the broiling afternoon heat.
With the clear intention of unleashing them in the comparative cool of the evening session.
Just how the Australian batters were planning to fill in those intervening hours became brutally apparent in the opening over of their second innings, when David Warner helped himself to a pair of boundaries and an all-run four.
The potential cost of that approach then became equally clear in Amir's next over when Warner aimed an ambitious pull shot, only to have his massive bat turn in his hands and a simple catch loop to mid-on.
Warner's opening partner Renshaw then recorded the first single-figure score of his embryonic Test career when he was turned around by a late swinging delivery and nicked off to second slip.
But Smith and Usman Khawaja successfully married enterprise with solidity in a third-wicket partnership that yielded 111 runs from 145 balls.
And was punctuated by trademark moments from both players – Khawaja peeling off a series of silky drives and Smith's wildly innovative shot-making sending purists into a cringe and the crowd into euphoria.
As the lead stretched beyond 400 and the sun dipped ever-lower behind the Brisbane skyline, Smith, Khawaja and the luckless Nic Maddinson all fell in the pursuit of still more runs.
Maddinson's dismissal for four – caught at deep backward square from a top-edged pull shot – came the delivery after he had struck the first boundary of a Test career that now shows 5 runs from three innings at an average of 1.66.
Although the 24-year-old was absolved from criticism for today's failure given he was facing a maximum of 10 minutes in which to bat before the dinner break (at which point the declaration loomed) and the team plans was to chase as many runs as possible in that abbreviated span.
Whether his selflessness is recognised by the national selectors will be revealed when they release the squad for the second Commonwealth Bank Test at game's end.
Although he may have won an early reprieve following news today that Shaun Marsh – the batting rival thought to be pushing for a Test recall – is facing a longer than expected recovery period after fracturing a finger last month.
0 comments:
Post a Comment