*Official* Australia v Pakistan Test Series

[Rik]

Somethings seriously wrong with Misbah...he's talented but either the Aussies have worked him out or he's just suddenly lost all form after being in excellent form in ODIs. A good job Hasan Raza has been picked, he's the only batsman to actually show any fight, and he's not opening this time which is good as he's a middle order batsman. Oh and Saqlain hit Warne for a 6...I thought he was supposed to be a boring defensive player???

 

[onemangang]

Akhter is a real life saver! Steven rang Akhter and thanked him for skipping the test match

Let see if Waugh's can come up with runs against real oponents, i.e England!!

 

[Anil]

Well....I posted saying that there could be a surprise result in this test and it looks like I am going to be proved comprehensively wrong. Australia -3 Pak - 0. In fact, Bangladesh is providing a stiffer resistance to SA. Very sad.

 

[Rich2001]

Originally posted by onemangang


Akhter is a real life saver! Steven rang Akhter and thanked him for skipping the test match

Let see if Waugh's can come up with runs against real oponents, i.e England!!

What does the poor guy have to do??? Steve can't win either way...

Everyone is on his back because he hasn't been in great form....so now he gets a super knock under his belts and within hours everyone is knocking him again saying that the knock didn't really count because Pakistan are missing the odd player.

Any team with bowlers of the caliber of W.Younis and S.Mustaq and also to keep going in temps of around 30-40 degrees, is a fine knock in my opinion.

S.Waugh his a super player, his records speak for themself and you don't just lose your ablity just like that, it's a dry spell and he will pull through (if he is dropped I would welcome him back to Kent CCC next season) and if Waugh is picked for the Ashes I am 100% certian that he will score at least 1 100 against us, he always does

 

[Paid The Umpire]

Steve has pulled it out of the fire, Mark has not!

Steven Waugh will play on,

Mark Waugh could be gone for all money!

 

[masterblaster]

Pakistan are just an awful, awful side at the moment. I rate them lower than Zimbabwe currently with the youngsters they have. I prefer Travis Friend anyday to Mohammad Sami, and prefer Dion Ebrahim to Imran Nazir

You may think im crazy but by far of all my years watching Cricket, Pakistan's cricket has been the worst of the lot.

They need like 7 Tendulkar's in their team at the moment and 4 Warnies

 

[marc71178]

Who'd keep in that time MB?

 

[Paid The Umpire]

Pakistan now... 3-26 still 197 behind.

 

[Top_Cat]

Hasan Raza; what a player. Here's Pakistan's future if you ask me. He has the shots and temperament to be the very best.

It'd be nice if Sami helped him get a ton tomorrow. And what's Sami doing batting at number 10??? He looks good enough to bat at 7!

 

[Gotchya]

For a player who's been out of Big cricket for so long, he's certainly put his fellows to shame. Here he is out of the dark and playing with so much maturity and confidence. All since three weeks has been sour to the eyes. Hasan may be the anchor Pakistan have been looking for. Its not really hype, but there he is, nothing to do with balls outside the off stump, patience and endurance, and surprise !! hes got more runs then the top order in both innings.

 

[Top_Cat]

I had a thought about leaving the deliveries outside off-stump just watching the cricket; do the Pakistani's and Indians spar outside the off-stump so much because they play so much one-day cricket they've forgotten how to leave the balls alone?

 

[Neil Pickup]

Originally posted by Gotchya
He's got more runs then the top order in both innings.

That's the whole top order put together...

At least that's one batting light to shine for Pakistan this series. Always a light at the end of the tunnel.

Over inside half an hour tomorrow I believe.

 

[royGilchrist]

I had a thought about leaving the deliveries outside off-stump just watching the cricket; do the Pakistani's and Indians spar outside the off-stump so much because they play so much one-day cricket they've forgotten how to leave the balls alone?

This has been going on before the plethora of ODI.

Javed Miandad and Azharuddin, two of the best batsmen the countries have produced used to do that, and ODI were not that popular in their early career, atleast Miandad started his career when ODI was in a very young stage. Saeed Anwar is also prone outside off, but his reason is I think as u said ODI, he is not the norm thouhg.

I think the observation is correct but the reason is something else. In the domestic cricket in the SubC, the batsmen are not challenged outside off that much, bowlers are not organized enough to keep the ball outside off consistently, and pitches are generally not fast and seam-friendly enough to threaten the batsmen outside off. Also, SubC guys seem to have a passion for inswingers.

Incidentally on this topic, Gavaskar is always praised as the legendary player of fast bowling, rightly so, but there is another lesser known guy from the SubC who in my opinion was as good a player of fast bowling as any I have seen. Mohinder Amarnath.

 

[aussie_beater]

Originally posted by royGilchrist
Incidentally on this topic, Gavaskar is always praised as the legendary player of fast bowling, rightly so, but there is another lesser known guy from the SubC who in my opinion was as good a player of fast bowling as any I have seen. Mohinder Amarnath.

Gavaskar was surely good, but Mohinder Amarnath's capability to handle fast bowling was IMO, better then the best.

He played the West Indian quicks in their heyday like no other batsman has done....not even Gavaskar.

 

[basil]

Originally posted by masterblaster
Pakistan are just an awful, awful side at the moment. I rate them lower than Zimbabwe currently with the youngsters they have. I prefer Travis Friend anyday to Mohammad Sami, and prefer Dion Ebrahim to Imran Nazir

You may think im crazy but by far of all my years watching Cricket, Pakistan's cricket has been the worst of the lot.

They need like 7 Tendulkar's in their team at the moment and 4 Warnies

Sami is a good bowler, he didn't bowled well in this match but when ur batters are doing nothing than its hardly fair to blame the bowlers.

No where in the World does a team field such inexperianced players, poor team selection can be suicidal and thats what happened. A batting line up should atleast have three senior batsman.All this team need is Inzi/Youhanna & either Ejaz or Mohd Waseem.Hopefully the PCB will stop experimenting with young kids in the future.

 

[royGilchrist]

Gavaskar was surely good, but Mohinder Amarnath's capability to handle fast bowling was IMO, better then the best.

He played the West Indian quicks in their heyday like no other batsman has done....not even Gavaskar.

Yeah AB, and also the 1982-83 series in Pakistan, Imran at his peak was destroying the powerful Indian line-up, Vengsarkar, Vishwanath, Sundip Patel, Kapil, and to some extent Gavaskar too, but Amarnath was facing Imran as if it was no problem. His biggest asset was the ability to play the ball very late.

 

[Gotchya]

At least that's one batting light to shine for Pakistan this series. Always a light at the end of the tunnel.

stealing thomo's line their

 

[aussie_beater]

Originally posted by royGilchrist

Gavaskar was surely good, but Mohinder Amarnath's capability to handle fast bowling was IMO, better then the best.

He played the West Indian quicks in their heyday like no other batsman has done....not even Gavaskar.

Yeah AB, and also the 1982-83 series in Pakistan, Imran at his peak was destroying the powerful Indian line-up, Vengsarkar, Vishwanath, Sundip Patel, Kapil, and to some extent Gavaskar too, but Amarnath was facing Imran as if it was no problem. His biggest asset was the ability to play the ball very late.

Yes he was very good on the back foot and he could hook the short stuff really well.....that series in 1982-83 against Pakistan was a disaster for India but Amarnath was the one shining light.

Except a very few, the batsman from the sub-continent haven't really shown that kind of sound technique against fast bowling which is really bad.

 

[Anil]

Originally posted by aussie_beater

Originally posted by royGilchrist

Gavaskar was surely good, but Mohinder Amarnath's capability to handle fast bowling was IMO, better then the best.

He played the West Indian quicks in their heyday like no other batsman has done....not even Gavaskar.

Yeah AB, and also the 1982-83 series in Pakistan, Imran at his peak was destroying the powerful Indian line-up, Vengsarkar, Vishwanath, Sundip Patel, Kapil, and to some extent Gavaskar too, but Amarnath was facing Imran as if it was no problem. His biggest asset was the ability to play the ball very late.

Yes he was very good on the back foot and he could hook the short stuff really well.....that series in 1982-83 against Pakistan was a disaster for India but Amarnath was the one shining light.

Except a very few, the batsman from the sub-continent haven't really shown that kind of sound technique against fast bowling which is really bad.

Talking of Jimmy Amarnath, his career stats make for some very interesting reading:

overall 69 tests 4378 runs 42.50(average) 11 centuries 24 fifties

home 32 tests 1370 runs 30.44(average) 2 centuries 7 fifties

away 37 tests 3008 runs 51.86 (average) 9 centuries 17 fifties

Not too many Indian players who have such lopsided figures. Come to think of it, not too many international players who have sucked that badly at home and at the same time, played exceptionally well abroad.

 

[Neil Pickup]

Originally posted by anilramavarmaCome to think of it, not too many international players who have sucked that badly at home and at the same time, played exceptionally well abroad.

Crofty!

Overall: 49 wickets @ 37.24
Home: 14 wickets @ 68.71 (12 tests)
Away: 35 wickets @ 24.65 (9 tests)