God help me - the Test Cricket thread

[capcom]

WTF? All out for 148 and 408 runs behind and Cummins won't enforce the follow-on ...

None of our bowlers have raised a sweat. Why bat again?

Mystifying to say the very least [member=122]Mav[/member] ... and meaningless IMO

[LP]

WTF? All out for 148 and 408 runs behind and Cummins won't enforce the follow-on ...

None of our bowlers have raised a sweat. Why bat again?

I'd bat again, just to freshen up the bowlers there is still two days and another test to go.

I do think Cummins made a mistake, but it wasn't batting again.

The Pakistanis used the light roller prior to batting, that would have been to preserve the wicket assuming they could mount a defence over the remaining three days, they have local knowledge.

Cummins should have bat again just to use the heavy roller on the wicket, make it break up and deteriorate faster, give the Aussies only a handful of overs to bat out of the two remaining days. If the heavy roller was the right one to settle down the wicket the Pakistanis would have used it already and they didn't! Then after using the heavy roller I'd bat 15 or 20 overs and then declare to get 4 or 5 overs at them tonight.

[capcom]

Near 500 runs ahead?  You playing for a draw Patrick?

[tonyo]

They will bat for 1 hour more, then have the best of 2 full days to roll them with no chance of losing.  I don't have a problem with what they've done - imagine if we'd enforced the follow on, and Pakistan set us 120 to win on a crumbling wicket?  Much rather knock off that extra 120 at the end of day 3 and let them play in the dirt.....

[Professer E]

They're relying on the pitch deteriorating a bit more,  plus absolutely physically and mentally grinding the Pakis into the dirt. Approach seems to have worked thus far.  Remember, only one side has pushed to win a game, the other has stonewalled.

[LP]

They're relying on the pitch deteriorating a bit more,  plus absolutely physically and mentally grinding the Pakis into the dirt. Approach seems to have worked thus far.  Remember, only one side has pushed to win a game, the other has stonewalled.

It's no given, our blokes got the ball to reverse which made a huge difference, then the opposition basically surrendered. The media was claiming the pitch was deteriorating, but then we come out and make 81 runs for the loss of 1 wicket.

Lyon and Swepson didn't have much impact, if the pitch stays stable and the ball doesn't reverse it could be a long two days!

It's far from conclusive.

[Mav]

Khawaja has 301 runs during this series at an average of 150.5. Not too shabby.

[Mav]

Lyon and Swepson didn't have much impact, if the pitch stays stable and the ball doesn't reverse it could be a long two days!

Cummins’ Australians do a Pakistan on Pakistan, The Age.

During the interminable Rawalpindi Test match, Waqar Younis conveyed a story that spoke much about how Pakistan operated at their best in his time.

The wily leg spinner Mushtaq Ahmed used to curse Waqar and Wasim Akram in the field, not without reason. The moment Mushtaq’s wrist spin claimed a wicket, the pacemen would be called in to wreak havoc on new batters with reverse swing.

Years later in the commentary box at his nation’s former fortress in Karachi’s National Stadium, Waqar would not have totally enjoyed the passage of day three.

But he could not have denied the familiarity of proceedings: catalysed by the debutant Mitchell Swepson and Nathan Lyon, then capitalised by Mitchell Starc, Cameron Green and the captain Pat Cummins, Australia inflicted a Pakistan on their hosts.

,,,

There will be those who look at a scorecard providing bare basics and assert that Swepson’s inclusion made no difference to the outcome. That Hazlewood might also have moved the old ball and that a second spin bowler was a luxury not affordable in these tough economic times.

But such conclusions would miss the skittish footwork Swepson’s introduction drew from Imam-ul-Haq before lunch, as the wrist spinner threatened footmarks that were too wide for Lyon. It was a testament to his eagerness for involvement that Swepson swooped from backward point to throw out Abdullah Shafique before lunch, his arm still warm from over No.1 in Test cricket.

Leg spin had, one way or another, changed the balance in the way that Warne had done for 15 wondrous years, and the hectic passages in early afternoon underlined the point. Knowing that he would eventually be challenged by Swepson out of the rough, Imam miscalculated to Lyon and punched to an exultant Cummins at mid on.

...

Once the day’s pivotal passages had taken place, and only remnants of the Pakistan innings remained, Swepson and Lyon returned to the bowling crease, an opportunity not always afforded Mushtaq.

Here Australia’s decision-makers got a glimpse of Swepson’s possibilities. His first ball of a spell looped, drifted and dropped on Babar Azam, coaxing a skier held exultantly by Usman Khawaja. Not too long later, Shaheen Afridi was beaten by a sharply spinning leg break, then a well-pitched wrong’un, then given lbw on the sweep.

Swepson and Lyon walked off with 3-45 between them. They had played vital roles in the day that tilted this series, as Australia played and beat Pakistan at the tempo game they have made their own for decades.

IOW, the strategy has largely been the reverse of the usual fast vs. spin bowlers dynamic. Usually, the fast bowlers take early wickets and expose the middle order & tail to spin. But in this case, the spinners made the breakthrough and the reverse swing fast bowlers took advantage.

[Mav]

Nathan Lyon just bowled a good length ball to Imam-Ul-Haq which would have hit the bottom half of his pad if he hadn't managed to clamp down on it. A few balls later, he's been given out LBW to another one that has kept a bit low. The pitch is variable, but an odd sort of variability. The only variation is that sometimes it keeps low. There isn't much unexpected sideways movement and the ball doesn't kick up, but the tendency to keep low means the batters have to get a bat on it or they risk an LBW.

[Mav]

Pakistan isn't bothering to chase the total: 10 runs off 15 overs. It'll be 2 days of defensive shots.