PAK vs AUS | Pitch comments haunt Pakistan as host stare at massive defeat against spirited Australians

‘We don’t want to put the game on Australia’s lap,’ scoffed Ramiz Raja after Pakistan Cricket Board were hit by ‘pitch controversy’ on the historic occasion of Australia’s return to Pakistan.

He made it abundantly clear at the end of the first game, that Pakistan would be looking to make low turning tracks throughout the series to negate the world class Australian attack that houses the likes of Pat Cummins, Mitchell Starc and Josh Hazlewood.

Come the second game in Karachi, reports started emerging that PCB had prepared several options for the wicket and one that was assured to offer help to spin bowling as the match progressed would be chosen.

Cut to Day 3 of the second Test match at Karachi, Pakistan have been blown away by the pace trio of Mitchell Starc, Pat Cummins and Cameron Green and are currently staring at a heavy defeat going into the final two days of the game.

How it happened

And it was not the pitch that did Pakistan in, but the skill and observation of captain Pat Cummins who is on his first away tour as a captain. Cummins copped quite an amount of blow after taking a long time to declare against Pakistan. They had already crossed a safe total on Day 2, and considering Alex Carey fell seven short of could have been his maiden hundred, many believed that Australia should have just declared.

However, that was not the case and Cummins batted for 11 more overs after the left hander’s dismissal, even taking some time in the morning session of Day 3. 

Coming into bowl with a massive first innings total of 556 runs, Australia started their session brilliantly with a Mitchell Swepson throw that found opener Abdullah Shafique short of his crease. 

Taking Lyon off

The ball had already started turning late on Day 2, something that Ramiz Raja would have been overjoyed about. The pitch itself was a hard one, suitable for batting with the odd ball gripping and turning from the rough.

Nathan Lyon, after his battering in the first Test match was doing exceptionally well, operating at the figures of 7-4-9-1. He had removed centurion from the last game Imam-ul-Haq to make sure Australia were in further control.

And then Cummins switched it up. He found the ball reversing a little and immediately threw the ball to his fastest bowler Mitchell Starc. 

And Starc paid back his captain’s faith.

Starc, in a spirited spell of bowling removed Azhar Ali and Fawad Alam in consecutive deliveries in the 26th over. At that time, every single ball off Starc’s hands looked like it could take a wicket and Mohammad Rizwan got a taste of that in the very first ball that he faced.

The right handed keeper-batsman walked into face Starc on his hattrick delivery. Coming from around the wicket, Starc bowled a full delivery from wide of the crease aimed towards the stump. The ball pitched on the off stump and reversed away from Rizwan, who did exceedingly well to curb his instincts to push at the ball. 

Rizwan survived, but Pakistan were down by four wickets till that point.

Cleaning up the lower order

Things became more difficult for Pakistan in the next phase of play as Pat Cummins brought in his full repertoire of skills and made life hell for the batsmen. He removed Rizwan in the 32nd over, after constantly troubling him on the off stump line. From there it was just a matter of time before Australia took over the scene and it did not take long for Cameron Green and Mitchell Starc to derail them further.

A helpless Babar Azam could only stand from the other end and saw wickets fall, before desperation kicked in and he mistimed a Swepson delivery to become the maiden wicket for the debutant.

The hosts were able to muster just 148 runs in 53 overs before getting bowled out handing Australia a humongous lead of 409 runs.

No declaration

Late in the day, Australia chose not to declare, possibly because of their agony from 2001 when VVS Laxman’s 281* changed the course of Test match history and template about how to play in the subcontinent.

At the end of day’s play, Australia were leading the game by 489 runs, having scored 81/1 in 17 overs.

Marnus Labuschange and Usman Khawaja were on the crease batting at 37 and 35 respectively.

Learnings

With two more days to be played, Australia would be hoping to take another 10 wickets to win this match considering the way their entire unit bowled on the day.

Hasan Ali, speaking after the stated that the clear difference between the bowling of the two sides was the extra pace that Australians had. He argued that this was still a batting wicket, and hopefully Pakistan batters will see their team through once they get a chance to bat here again.

The biggest learning of the day is obviously that the skill and ability of the Australian pacers ruled over the planning, plotting and reservation from the PCB over their pitch. In an attempt to make a pitch that would suit their batters, they forgot that, Australia not only had an equal batting line-up to theirs but had a multi-skilled bowling unit, spearheaded by a captain, who was extremely proud to wear the Baggy Green.

Pat Cummins and his fast bowling cartel put on a show that Pakistan cricket fans hoped that their team would, on Australia's return to Pakistan. There are still two more days to go in this Test match and it is safe to say that Pakistan need to make it a banger of a contest to survive. Australia's performance on Day 2 has made sure that Pakistan cricket fans got the match that they craved for after the horrible pitch saga that has engulfed his series - A gladiatorial contest, that ensures the survivability of Test cricket in the fast-moving world.