Second Test: Australians praised despite Pakistan pulling off draw in Karachi marathon
Coach Andrew McDonald has come to the defence of the Australian players after Pakistan escaped with a draw following a bizarre helmet drama and four dropped catches.
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Coach Andrew McDonald has praised his players and the team tactics after Pat Cummins’ men came within three wickets of being the first Australian side to win in Karachi.
The coach said they would see how Mitchell Starc pulled up, but said his reverse swing — which opened up the game in the first innings of the match which finished Wednesday — was invaluable.
Selectors will wait to see the wicket before deciding if leg spinner Mitchell Swepson holds his place.
The first two Tests have ended in draws and the series will now go to the line in Lahore.
The Australians batted well and almost made a last-gasp bid for victory but were held out by Pakistan in the fading light on day five.
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“I think it’s confirmation that the style of cricket that we set out to play in Pakistan will hold up and we said it was going to be a 15-day test series,” he said.
“We’re 10 days in. We gave ourselves a real good look at the last Test match. And you’ve got to do something extraordinary to get a look in I think that was built on the back of day three’s bowling performance. It’s to Pakistan’s credit, especially the captain Babar having an incredible innings to deny us, but yeah what a Test match. Morale is very good and positive and we know what we need to do coming into the last Test match.”
Pakistan skipper Babar Azam’s 196 in the last innings saved his side and set a record for any captain in the fourth innings of a Test match.
While Australia has struggled a few times in recent years, McDonald said it was through no fault of the bowlers that they fell short.
“On the fifth day on flatter surfaces we created great opportunities for ourselves and unfortunately haven’t been able to take them but to keep putting yourself in those situations that continually and as I said, really good confirmation that the style of cricket that we want to play is going to hold up,” he said.
“If you put yourself in those situations continually you’ll find a way through them and just a couple of missed opportunities in among that final day, but we gave ourselves a really good look at it. That’s why I’m really proud of the guys. The way they stuck to it.
“The game started to accelerate just before tea and your could see Mitchell Swepson really coming into the game and then the last session we were able to create more opportunities to put Pakistan right on the back foot. But yeah, we weren’t able to really get the job done at the final hurdle but really proud in terms of the way we played.”
The team dropped at least four catches in the last innings with Usman Khawaja putting down an easy chance at extra cover while wearing a helmet.
McDonald defended the player against criticism that he should have removed it.
“Someone who’s going in and out of bat pad on the off side, so it was clear as to why he would have had a helmet on,” he said.
“So I’m not reading too much into that. You know, there’s other instances within the game as well. As I said, we had some opportunities throughout. The last innings that we didn’t quite take but it’s confirmation the style that we want to play, how we’re going about it is going to put us into positions where we’re going to have that opportunity again.”
The Australians bowled 171.4 overs in the last innings and there will be concerns about the four-day turn around, particularly for Mitchell Starc and Pat Cummins.
Josh Hazlewood was left out of the last match and is an obvious replacement if they pull the change.
“We’ll have a look leading into the next Test match around our quicks,” McDonald said.
“There’s no doubt about that, but we think we worked out some really strong bench strength as well with some options.
“So we’ll assess over the next few days. But my assumption is if he (Starc) pulls up well that he will definitely get another crack in the last Test.
“His reverse swing was pivotal in terms of opening that game up for us so that the people to leave him out unless there was some physical issues.”
McDonald praised Swepson despite the spinner — who was denied a wicket by umpire’s call on DRS and when Khawaja dropped the catch — despite the leg spinner finishing with 0-156 in the last innings of his debut Test.
“We’ll look at the surface every time,” he said about selecting him in Lahore.
“We’ll see how he pulls up, but yeah, he created opportunities for us and that’s what legspinner can do.
“So first and second innings I thought he bowled well, you know, throughout the game, impressive debut.
“He waited a long time for that debut but some held his own — an incredibly positive first Test match from our point of view, but we’ll assess the conditions we’ll try to make the right decisions around the best team for that surface and against the opposition. So does that include Mitch swepson we’ll have to wait and see when we are on the ground?”
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Why was Usman Khawaja wearing a helmet at extra cover way out on the edge of the square?
It is a question that will be asked after Australia came agonisingly close to winning the first ever Test for their country at Karachi but momentum was lost with 18 balls to go and three overs remaining.
Questions, however, should equally be asked of three other Australian fielders who put down chances, but the helmet thing was puzzling.
The batsman whose brilliant innings gave Australia a chance to win the Test match somehow put down the simple chance.
Mohammad Rizwan was given a reprieve and Pakistan held on for a heroic draw.
Perhaps the helmet did not play any part, but it is extremely unusual for a fielder to be wearing one in that position.
Surely he will argue that you can see the ball when batting with one on, so why not when fielding? Although the head stays stiller in the first instance than the second.
Maybe the home side would have hung on and definitely he was not the only one.
Steve Smith, Marnus Labuschagne and Travis Head all put down chances in Pakistan’s last innings.
Mitchell Swepson was the bowler on both occasions with Smith and Head – and when Khawaja put down the late chance.
Two umpires’ decisions on the DRS also went against the bowlers who only needed three wickets more.
Pat Cummins defended the Australians after questions were asked about their inability to close out games on a few occasions in recent years and pointed to the fielding.
“I think the positive thing is we’ve created more than 10 chances each time,” he said.
“I think the disappointing thing this game as well was if we’d taken a couple of those chances it might have been a different scenario, we’ll keep reviewing it.
“Having two spinners today in those conditions, I thought we bounced between plans really well. I walked off the field at the end of the day’s play yesterday as well as today knowing there wasn’t a plan we hadn’t had a really good chance at.
“I wouldn’t discount how well they batted.”
Cummins sounded flat but said he thought the effort was admirable.
“I was really proud and happy about how our team played,” he said.
“In foreign conditions, we’re showing we can adapt and play well over here but of course getting so close, yet so far ahead of the game and not coming out with a result can feel like it’s a missed opportunity. The good thing is it’s 0-0. He didn’t lose anything. There is another game next week. Coming over here in these conditions at the start of the series, if you said it was going to be 0-0 after two games you’d take that.
“It was a really good Test match there were a couple of chances there that we could have taken and things might have been different, but really proud of how we played, we are satisfied with the last five days.”
Some critics said Cummins batted too long in the first innings and should have enforced the follow on. They will claim some justification but in truth the Australian tactics gave themselves the best chance to win the game – and they almost did.
“In terms of tactics, I think overall I wouldn’t change too much to be honest,” he said.
“Batting into day three gave us that chance to really have a crack at them on day three, we probably went better than we would have expected, but over here the wickets are pretty good we tried to bat two and a half days on the best time on the wicket hoping it was going to break up on day four and five but it held together and they batted really well.
Cummins praised the Pakistan side and said their effort to score 443 after being bowled out for 148 in the first innings was just one of those things.
“Welcome to Test cricket can have a real impact on the game, especially if you have a breakthrough,” he said.
“If you get a new batter in they have got to start against the reversing ball and things can move really quickly. If that doesn’t happen reverse swing is still useful but it is not all it is cracked up to be, sometimes I thought Babar (Azam), (Mohammad) Rizwan, (Abdullah) Shaffique all batted fantastically the last two days, the wicket was not playing too many tricks but they batted superbly and made it really hard to get that breakthrough and when did the next batter stuck at it as well.”
Cummins said it Mitchell Swepson’s 0-156 was a statistical aberration.
“I thought Sweppo bowled fantastically today, I don’t know how he ended up with those figures, especially with our middle session before tea,” he said. “He had an umpires call, a couple of half chances dropped, lots of play and misses.
“I thought he was fantastic, today started to spin a bit more, especially in the second half and he was a real wicket taking option on a really good wicket without footmarks for the right handers, I was really impressed with how he went about it, not surprised but it was easy as a captain to call on his bowling
“I thought Nathan bowled well, I thought he was going to take a wicket every over, brining on myself and Starcy was a hard decision to make because I thought he was going to get a wicket every over.”
PAKISTAN HOLD ON FOR EXTRAORDINARY DRAW
What an extraordinary game Test cricket is and what an extraordinary game of Test cricket unfolded on the last of five days play at the National Stadium, Karachi.
Pakistan hung on, but had to create history, defending for a record 172 overs as Australia pushed for a victory that had seemed miles away an hour earlier.
This game had so many twists. It was a test of nerves to the very end. It was an edge of your seat thriller for the ages. Stephen King comes to the Sindh.
The suspense was agonising. The dead rose, the impossible became possible.
Mohammad Rizwan held his nerve and brought up his century with an over to go, the Karachi crowd delirious with excitement and anxiety.
Pakistan finished on 7-443 but it was closer than that. When they appeared to have locked in the heroic draw, when Babar Azam looked set for a double hundred that would ring down through the years Nathan Lyon had the opposition skipper caught at bat pad.
Next delivery, Lyon had Faheem Ashraf for a duck and was on a hat trick.
The previous two wickets had taken 137 overs but, with the shadows long and the game apparently drifting toward a draw, two fell in two balls.
Next over the Australians took the new ball and approached the game believing they were a contender again. Eleven overs to go and four wickets to take.
And then he had another.
Kept on despite the change of ball, Lyon induced a nick from Sajid Khan and Smith held a sharp juggling catch.
Three wickets with eight overs to come. Lyon finished with 4-112, he gave Australia a chance but they fumbled it.
With 19 balls to go Mohammad Rizwan hit a simple, straight catch to Usman Khawaja at short cover. It went in and went out.
The wrist spinner’s Queensland captain had a helmet on his head, every other Australian player on the field had their hands on theirs.
Pakistan would have been eight down with three overs left. Pat Cummins took the moment to introduce Marnus Labuschagne into the attack for the first time. Could he do what Michael Clarke had done in Sydney against India in 2008 and take three?
He ripped them out of the rough but he could not.
Nobody won, nobody lost, but the tension, the torment of the possible was excruciating through to the last act of this epic, grinding drama.
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