‘Really odd’ tactic exposes Australian cricket team’s one weakness

The Australian cricket team boasts the best bowling quartet of all time, but one tactic has been questioned after it failed at the SCG.

The Australian cricket team now boasts the greatest bowling quartet of all time, but they still have one glaring weakness.

It looked like the third Test could be over quickly when Mitchell Starc and Josh Hazlewood dismissed both Pakistan openers for a duck on Day 1 and Pat Cummins picked up his third five-wicket haul in a row.

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The tourists were 4/47 at one stage before Mohammad Rizwan score a counterattacking 88 to rescue Pakistan’s innings.

The job was nearly done at 9/227, only for No. 9 Aamer Jamal to play the innings of his life to frustrate the Australians and push Pakistan’s total to 313. Jamal finished on 82, his highest ever score in first class cricket.

Australia’s pacemen opted to send down bouncers at Pakistan’s tailenders. It yielded a couple of wickets but proved easy pickings for Jamal, who dispatched the world class bowling attack to the boundary.

Australia’s advantage slipped away late on Day 1. Photographer: Tom Parrish

Aamir Jamal teed off, pushing Pakistan past 300. (Photo by Mark Evans/Getty Images)

In the last session on Wednesday, less than 2 per cent of deliveries were aimed at the stumps.

“I don’t think spreading the field out and only trying to get one batter out works very often,” Fox Cricket commentator Harsha Bhogle tweeted.

“Australia didn’t try hard enough to get Aamer Jamal out.”

One normal day of Australia bowling at the tail

— Daniel Cherny (@DanielCherny) January 3, 2024

I love the Australian bowling line-up.

But also, Scotty Boland would have cleaned up the Pakistan tail yesterday.#AUSvsPAK#AUSvPAK

— Scott Phillips (@TMFScottP) January 3, 2024

Commentator Gerard Whateley said on SEN: “Australia stayed with it (the short-pitched bowling) for too long. Jamal played really well. He was able to farm the strike and after being unsettled initially, he found his method.

“It just went for too long. They basically gave him a net session to tune his game to any portion of the ground he liked and he wasn’t taking the run. The he starts to lash out.

“He was particularly harsh on (Nathan) Lyon as he hammered sixes and fours sometimes off consecutive deliveries. It was really odd.”

Asked by news.com.au why the Aussies tried to bounce out the tail, Marsh explained the plan had worked before but on this occasion Jamal was simply too good.

“You always have to back in what you’re doing, certainly when you’re bowling to a tailender. He could easily hit one of those straight up,” Marsh said.

“We certainly weren’t waiting for that to happen, but I honestly think that he batted unbelievably well.

“We saw a potential weakness to the short ball last game. But the ball got old on a slow wicket.

“He played exceptionally well, so it was hard work.”

Cummins told Fox Cricket on Day : “After losing the toss we would have taken bowling them out for 313.

“But having them 9/200, it felt like we overachieved in the first half of the day and underachieved towards the tail particuarly that last wicket.

“It’s one of those ones where you could have really taken the game away from them but they batted really well at the end there.”

The Aussies tend to bowl bouncers at tailenders. (Photo by Mark Evans/Getty Images)

The relentless short pitched bowling brought back memories of when the Aussies peppered Ben Stokes with bouncers at Lord’s in the Ashes, but the England captain smacked bouncers to the boundary to give his side a chance of victory.

Quartet watch (top for each country):
419 Cummins/Hazlewood/Lyon/Starc
415 Moeen/Anderson/Broad/Stokes
387 Boje/Kallis/Ntini/SPollock
329 Gibbs/Griffith/Hall/Sobers
302 Jayasuriya/Murali/Vaas/Zoysa
293 Boult/Southee/Wagner/Williamson
206 Ashwin/Jadeja/Sharma/Yadav

— Ric Finlay (@RicFinlay) January 3, 2024

It must be said the quartet of Cummins, Starc, Hazlewood and Lyon aren’t doing too badly.

The foursome have now become the most prolific wicket-taking group in Test history with 419 wickets in matches played together — surpassing England’s quartet of James Anderson, Stuart Broad, Ben Stokes and Moeen Ali.

Starc is nicknamed the mop because he cleans up the tail. Some of his searing yorkers wouldn’t have gone astray late on Day 1.

The Aussie bowlers are a near faultless quartet that takes the 20 wickets required to win a Test match with ease.

But they can still get better at bowling at tailenders.

Bad light and rain brought an early end to play on Day 2. David Warner was dismissed for 34 and Australia are 2/116, trailing by 197 runs.