Australia beat Pakistan in stunning Test victory
By Doug Conway, 6 Jan 2010 Doug Conway is a Roar Pro
- Tagged:
- Australian Cricket, Cricket, Nathan Hauritz, Pakistan, SCG
The Australia team celebrates the dismissal of Pakistan's Kamran Akmal Mitchell Johnson on day 4 of the second test at the SCG in Sydney on Wednesday, Jan. 6, 2010. (AAP Image/Tracey Nearmy)
An unbeaten Mike Hussey century, two astonishing catches and a five-wicket haul for Nathan Hauritz helped Australia complete one of Test cricket’s greatest comebacks to wrap up the series against Pakistan.
Ricky Ponting’s men whooped with delight and piled on top of one other in celebration at the SCG after turning a 206-run first innings deficit into a 36-run victory.
The unlikely triumph clinched the three-Test series 2-0 with one to play.
Such a fairytale seemed virtually impossible as the home team resumed on day four at 8-268, ahead by just 80 runs after trailing abysmally on the first innings.
But Hussey, the 34-year-old warhorse supposedly on his way to the knacker’s yard, proved instead to be Melbourne Cup material still.
He stayed the distance to notch his 11th Test century, remaining not out 134 as he combined with the gritty Peter Siddle (38) to engineer a record-breaking ninth-wicket partnership of 123.
Pakistan wicketkeeper Kamran Akmal, who had dropped Hussey three times the previous day before he reached 50, could not wake up from his nightmare.
He was still wearing iron gloves as he grassed another sitter to give Siddle a life on 25.
Hussey and Siddle stayed together for three and a half hours of dogged resistance before Siddle was bounced out by Mohammad Asif.
When leg-spinner Danish Kaneria finally wrapped up the innings to claim a five-wicket haul, Australia had amassed 381 and set Pakistan a difficult target of 176.
The never-say-die Australians soon had Pakistan in trouble, thanks largely to two memorable catches.
Wicketkeeper Brad Haddin was parallel with the SCG turf as he flew to take a one-hander down leg side to get rid of opener Salman Butt off Mitchell Johnson.
And spinner Nathan Hauritz, in an act of self-preservation, somehow held a smashed drive off his own bowling to send disbelieving Pakistani captain Mohammad Yousuf on his way.
The match could have swung either way in the final session.
But Pakistan’s fate was sealed when teenage sensation Umar Akmal, one short of his half-century, miscued a drive off Doug Bollinger.
Mitchell Johnson held another fine pressure catch at mid-off to have the visitors reeling at 8-133.
Hauritz cleaned up Pakistan’s wildly swinging tail to finish with five wickets and dismiss the visitors for a paltry 139.
Reports of Test cricket’s death had proven to be greatly exaggerated.
© AAP 2012Enjoy sports? Enjoy a bargain? All Sports Online has your favourite sporting brands at up to 70% off. Online only, premium quality sporting goods and merchandise at discounted prices. Get a deal now.
The Crowd Says (12) | Page 1 of Comments
Have Your Say
Do you have what it takes to become a sports writer? Write for the roar
Cricket articles
- What we do and don’t know about our Baggy Greens (112)
- Success of Twenty20 spells trouble for ODI cricket (106)
- Channel 9 commentators an annoyance this summer (102)
- One Day Cricket is suffering from Middle Child Syndrome (89)
- Cricket Australia must take a stand against racist spectators (89)
- Dave’s Warner-ful switch-hit panned by precious critics (84)
- Khawaja shouldn’t have been Shaun from the Test side (71)
- Clarke stars as Australia beat Sri Lanka
- Australia vs Sri Lanka, Perth ODI: cricket live scores, commentary (197)
- Hall of Fame for Indian legend Gavaskar
- Sri Lanka to target ‘weak’ Aussie bowlers
- India backing Rohit Sharma to find form
- Game-by-game preview of round 19
- Twenty20 cricket not up to the test (6)
- Australia vs Sri Lanka, Perth ODI: cricket live scores, commentary (197)
- Twenty20 cricket not up to the test (6)
- Pakistan’s win over England a triumph of character (21)
- Steve Waugh is right about cricket’s succession plan (5)
- India vs Sri Lanka, Perth ODI: cricket live scores, commentary (180)
- Let’s talk about selection, Test fans (28)
- Pakistan win shows what’s beautiful about the game (13)
- Explore:
- Australian Cricket, Cricket, Nathan Hauritz, Pakistan, SCG
Kento said | January 6th 2010 @ 4:18pm | Report comment
Awesome win!! Is this the start of a new great Aussie team? I suspect so…
Fisher Price said | January 6th 2010 @ 4:37pm | Report comment
Enjoy the victory by all means but don’t get carried away; Pakistan aren’t exactly one of the strongest Test opponents…
That’s two 30-odd run victories against teams they should be hammering this home summer.
Chris said | January 6th 2010 @ 6:00pm | Report comment
Fisher, a win is a win. Pakistan bowled about as well as any team in the world in this test and Australia won. In cricket, especially for a relatively inexperienced team (in the bowling more so) winning is much more of a habit and ‘learning’ to do what it takes to win is the key to growth as a player.
England showed in the Ashes and now in Sth Africa that being in the contest and being good enough to compete session-in-session-out is the key to being good at test cricket.
The ashes will be a cracker next year if both teams hold it together.
amused said | January 6th 2010 @ 7:33pm | Report comment
oh right fisher. many, including Spiro, et al on this board and elsewhere in the media were calling for Ponting’s scalp. others already has Pakistan winning this test. so by all means play down the aussies coming back from the place they were in yesterday and on day 1. it’s only pakistan. lol
Scotty iin Devon said | January 6th 2010 @ 5:18pm | Report comment
Oh come on Fisher credit where it is due. The lads bowled well today, and you can only play who is in front of you. 2 x 30 run victories? Why not mention the last match with its 170 run victory?
Harry said | January 6th 2010 @ 5:34pm | Report comment
Hope there is some humility in victory and the Australian press go easy on the young Pakistani team … they have to confront bigger challenges than merely playing the game.
Marshall said | January 6th 2010 @ 6:59pm | Report comment
Further proof that Test is alive and well and it matters so much more than Twenty20
Mike Abes said | January 6th 2010 @ 7:28pm | Report comment
Miracles aside, something smells like week old fish.
Did betting odds have anything to do with pakis errant bowling, deliberatly dropping catches and nicking balls?
Mr said | January 6th 2010 @ 8:34pm | Report comment
Mike, sadly the same thought crossed my mind.
Brian said | January 6th 2010 @ 10:33pm | Report comment
I too wondered whether Kamran Akmal had some money on the Aussies. In any event Australia have just beaten two pretty average sides who dropped plenty of catches. The Ashes may well be close next year because England and Australia are evenly matched not because they are at the level of India or South Africa.
Dont get me wrong was a great game but beating the 6th and 8th place sides at home hardly constitutes a new dawn. Yes Pakistan bowled well but they dropped catches, their top 3 are suspect and their tail starts at No 6.
Joe said | January 7th 2010 @ 12:19am | Report comment
Mike, Mr and Brian – I think there was 22 people at the match who either thought Australia could win or knew they would win the game today. Those bigger issues that Harry is talking about are probably just fantasy to the majority of Aussies.
Harry said | January 7th 2010 @ 8:02am | Report comment
Credit to the Pakistans captain for trying to shoulder as much blame as possible on himself for the defeat, rather than pinning it on his younger players. While his tactics in the field were very poor and deserve condemnation, his post match comments were both gracious and a demonstration of leadership under pressure.
And yes, the Australians conducted themselves well in victory. No gloating or boorishness – except the entirely justified comments and “hands up” by Ricky to the Australian press – that was a fair cop.