Australia v Pakistan: a match that will never be forgotten

MAGNIFICENT Pakistan were fearless and simply amazing, but it was Australia breathing a sigh of relief after a Gabba epic, writes ROBERT CRADDOCK.

Australian captain Steve Smith reacts after a Pakistan boundary on day five at the Gabba.

AUSTRALIA has dodged a bullet. Actually it was a cannon ball.

Had this Test been lost it would have left scars so deep they may never have healed.

Instead a group of young players have learnt more about Test cricket in five crazily contrasting days than some players don’t learn in extended careers.

Pakistan at one stage were 660-1 with bookies and played like nerveless cavaliers — until they came in sight of victory and thought “we can win this’’.

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At the very point bookies were about to make them favorites they tensed up for an over or two, blinked, and it was gone.

The miracle of Brisbane had vanished and Australia rejoiced.

Australia lost the plot but still won. Steve Smith had a poor day as captain and was too defensive early.

Captains love setting in-out fields when a fine batsman and tailender are on strike to try and get the weaker man to face up but when do they ever work? Certainly not on Monday.

It was not until Australia reverted to the Australian way of robust attack that they salvaged the match.

Australian captain Steve Smith reacts after a Pakistan boundary on day five at the Gabba.

Had Pakistan conjured another 40 runs we would have called it the most stunning result in the 140-year, 2241-match history of cricket.

The year of the upset — Leicester City and all that — looked set for its ultimate punchline.

Smith would have had a skeleton which would have rattled in the closet for the rest of his career.

Moments after effecting the run out of Yasir Shah, Smith walked off the ground, took a deep breath, sighed and smiled the smile of a man who had just seen a tornado whistle through his front yard but somehow miss his house.

Pakistan’s Yasir Shah in action on day five of the Test against Australia at the Gabba. Picture: Peter Wallis

You could understand his relief because matches like this, if you lose them, tend to leave deep and sometimes permanent scars.

Some Australian players who were caught in the Ian Botham hurricane in the 1981 Ashes never regained their Test match composure.

Damien Martyn was haunted for years by a false shot in a run chase against South Africa and Steve Waugh spent the last part of his career answering questions about why he enforced the follow on against India in Calcutta in 2001.

A loss here would have been bigger than all of those.

Hats off to magnificent Pakistan — they were fearless and simply amazing.

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From the first ball of the morning, when Josh Hazlewood bowled to just one slip, Australia seemed tense and defensive, a contrast to the composure of the Pakistanis who were cool, nerveless and made a mockery of their reputation as being panickers under pressure.

It was almost as if Australia was scared of losing. They looked flat and almost consumed by the prospect of being part of an historical horror show.

If they had lost Smith would have been left to stew over why he didn’t enforce the follow on here and why he declared five wickets down.

But they won, Smith has a significant victory, and the grand old game of Test cricket has given us a match which will never be forgotten.

Originally published as Australia v Pakistan: a match that will never be forgotten