God help me - the Test Cricket thread

[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.

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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.

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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.