Australia are hanging by the thread going into the fifth and the final day of the second Test at Abu Dhabi against Pakistan and will need a near miracle to save the Test match. You can follow the live blog of the fifth day of this second Test starting at 5:00pm (AEDT).
It was another day that almost totally belonged to Pakistan. They had Younis Khan and Azhar Ali bat much like they had in the first innings except that the Aussies did finally manage to get Younis out a tad earlier this time.
Their woes only began after that.
Misbah ul Haq joined Azhar Ali and batted like a man possessed.
This was the same Misbah who had run into such a batting form trouble that he, despite being the ODI captain, had dropped himself from the final game of their series against Australia.
This was the same Misbah who is often ridiculed for his inability to accelerate in the shorter format of the game.
This was also the same guy who hammered multiple records in a short span of a session or so; a couple you would never expect from him – a record-breaking quickest half-century and a record-equalling fastest century.
In the process he also became the second batsman in the series to score a century in each innings of a Test. Just two balls later, Azhar Ali joined him to become the third.
The pair had added 141 for the fourth wicket in only 17 overs to leave the Aussies battered on the field, and by the time the visitors were back for the chase, they were left with an impossible 603 runs to get.
What it also did was to take a few overs away from the Pakistani bowlers to try and capture the 10 Australian wickets.
Still in the 48 overs that Pakistan had on the fourth day, they managed to carve out four of those 10. With Brad Haddin still struggling with his shoulder injury, it remains to be seen if he will be batting on the final day but even if he does, it could get difficult for him to survive.
In essence, the ongoing partnership between Steven Smith and Mitchell Marsh is the one that needs to do most of the work on the final day.
So far they have survived 122 balls to push the game into the final day but with more than 500 more balls still to be bowled, their resistance on the penultimate day was only a tip of an iceberg.
Pakistan will be inching towards quickly running through the rest and they have the bowling to do that too. The question is how long can the Aussies hold out.
Join me for this fifth day of the second Test between Pakistan and Australia on Monday here and you can follow the live score of this game from 5:00pm (AEDT) and post your comments in the section below.
fredstone
Guest
Test cricket is in a bad place at the moment. The Windies are non existent. India is non existent anywhere other than in India against Australia. England are in virtual tatters. Pakistan is the third best team according to rankings apparently. New Zealand is maybe a faint ray of light, but it could just be that everybody else is so bad it makes them look good, then there's Aus the mighty who's extremely limited and one dimensional with and nearly as bad as India outside Aus. Sri Lanka has to manufacture pitches to manufacture wins and the number one team is in a transitional phase and could probably beat most of the others in most conditions most of the time whilst being a bit unbalanced.
Worlds Biggest
Guest
Fantastic performance Pakistan, shows what a good team they are. Totally dominated this series. CA really need to address our poor record on these tracks. The preparation at home on these specially made decks are a must. Thanks Suneer for another brilliant job.
Suneer Chowdhary
Roar Guru
And with that, I am done with this series as well but more opinion about this defeat will be up on the site all throughout the lead-up to the South Africa T20Is & ODIs. Excellent bringing this to you and will be back with the first T20I against South Africa from November 5. Have a nice day ahead!
Suneer Chowdhary
Roar Guru
Presentation time: Michael Clarke: Extremely disappointed but Pakistan deserve a lot of credit. They have outplayed us. Batting, bowling and fielding did us in. I think Australia's track record in Asia has generally been poor, which we need to look to try and overcome. A string of awards being handed out to the Pakistani team. Too many of them. The man-of-the-match award goes to Misbah-ul-Haq. Century in each innings and the fastest 100 as well. Younis Khan is the man-of-the-series for his two centuries and a double. Misbah: Relieved to win the series. Honour to lead this side, the way everybody played. Every individual played well in the series. Cannot describe the feeling on getting the master-blaster award (for quickest century). We knew we needed to do our basics right and the results would come. Everyone was hurt the way they lost the previous two series. Yasir Shah will deliver the goods for us in the times to come, hats off to the way he bowled against Australia. We have got our side for the future here. Important win against Australia with another series coming up (they play New Zealand next week onward).
Suneer Chowdhary
Roar Guru
Australia will obviously need to get back to the drawing board but the question is whether they know where to begin. Can they make the same set of players perform well in both conditions - at home and then on such spin-friendly ones? David Warner can, Steven Smith can and history suggests that even Michael Clarke can. What about the other four in the top seven? And what about the Aussie bowlers? Either their fast bowlers need to know how to bowl in such conditions but then there aren't too many quicks in the world who enjoy them, Dale Steyn being one exception. The other option is to hand-pick spinners who can deliver on such tracks as opposed to those who do well in Australia - again, this could be a mutually exclusive set. The good news for Australia? Mitchell Marsh seems to have come of age with the bat. Back home, he will do well with the ball too, is the hope. If Watson's fit, it will either give them the opportunity to play both all-rounders or have one backing up the other. The other good news is that they don't play on such tracks for some time now. T20Is and ODIs against South Africa, Tests against India, ODIs against India and England and the World Cup follows on from here and all of it will be played at home. So probably, they do not need to go back to the drawing board after all. Not just yet anyway.
Brains of a bimbo (Atgm)
Guest
Lyon fails to get a not out. How the mighty have fallen.
Suneer Chowdhary
Roar Guru
This has been a great performance from Pakistan. Let's not look at what happened before the start of the Test series - even on an absolute basis, to beat Australia by 221 runs and by 356 runs is quite special. Add all the problems that went around the team before the start of this series - Younis Khan controversy, a reluctant and out of form captain and their poor showings recently - and I run out of words to describe the turnaround. Australia were in the series in the first 30 minutes of the first Test. After that, it was mostly all about Pakistan and it's rare to find one team dominate the other, higher-ranked side so vehemently. Younis Khan has been at the centre of their success with two centuries and a double-century. Almost everyone else in the top-order chipped in with excellent batting performances to give their spinners enough buffer when they came on to bowl in the series.
Ronan O'Connell
Expert
Phenomenal performance by Pakistan, they have batted, fielded and bowled better than Australia and won all 10 days of this series.
Suneer Chowdhary
Roar Guru
Gone! End of Lyon and that of Australia too! Pakistan have won the series 2-0 to make it to the number three position in the ICC Test Rankings. Their first series victory against Australia in 20 years. This 356-run victory is their biggest win in Test match cricket. Lyon inside edges one from Babar to give the silly-point fielder a catch, giving the bowler another five-wicket haul!
Suneer Chowdhary
Roar Guru
Barring the last line, I agree to most of that assessment. There's one other point I would like to add. We seem to have reached that stage in Test match cricket where teams have lost touch about how to play outside the conditions they are used to playing in - the one exception to that rule could just be South Africa, having done well against Pakistan in UAE and having had a good series in Sri Lanka recently as well.
Brains of a bimbo (Atgm)
Guest
England. Fired Graham Gooch as batting coach and replace him with a guy that averages less than Phil Hughes
Suneer Chowdhary
Roar Guru
And now Starc's bowled! This was a matter of time. Starc was always struggling against the leg-spinner, bowling in the rough. After many a prods and pushes, he finally decides to tee off and the ball sneaks through to hit timber. Yasir has his third, Australia have lost ninth.
Suneer Chowdhary
Roar Guru
There's an appeal for run-out here at the non-striker's end. It's been drilled back down the ground by Starc, hits the bowler and then the stumps but Siddle's inside his crease, 8/244 in the 88th
Pottsy
Guest
I think Glenn Maxwell bats on the basis of this philosophy: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RZ-uV72pQKI. Then again Willy Wonka is quick on his feet and on Channel Nine often enough - perhaps he should bat at three?
Suneer Chowdhary
Roar Guru
Couple of overs where Australia do not lose a wicket. 8/242 in 86, a good 52 overs remain in the day.
Professor Rosseforp
Guest
Not really sure, but Australia has shown an inability to bowl, an inability to bat with determination and patience, and has fielded poorly. Pakistan is playing on the same pitch, they have scored runs, taken wickets and taken catches. There has been no funny business, they are just playing better. They are just people like the Australian cricketers, and the hot conditions offer them no special advantages. They get hot and tired, too. Theoretically the team batting first in these conditions should have an advantage, but I'm not sure the Australians would have done any better if they had batted first. My meagre observation is that the Australians just don't look interested in playing.
Suneer Chowdhary
Roar Guru
Siddle has jogged down the pitch through most of the balls bowled in that Babar over. Finally hits one off the middle and drives one straight through for a couple. 8/241 in 85
Brains of a bimbo (Atgm)
Guest
Aus shud hire smiths dad as battin coach in these conditions considerin hes the one who taught smith how to play spin
Gav
Guest
We have mastered the art of.......collapse :(
Suneer Chowdhary
Roar Guru
Mitchell Starc has been promoted up to number 10. That's probably because he batted number 11 first innings only due to Lyon being the night watchman.