Report - 3rd Test, Day 3 : Pakistan struggle despite a record-breaking hundred by Younis Khan

[Abdullah719]

Toss: Australia won the toss, Steve Smith opted to bat first.

Teams

Australia: MT Renshaw, DA Warner, UT Khawaja, SPD Smith (c), PSP Handscomb, HWR Cartwright, MS Wade (wk), MA Starc, SNJ O'Keefe, JR Hazlewood, NM Lyon.

Pakistan: Sharjeel Khan, Azhar Ali, Babar Azam, Younis Khan, Misbah-ul-Haq (c), Asad Shafiq, Sarfraz Ahmed (wk), Mohammad Amir, Yasir Shah, Wahab Riaz, Imran Khan.

The start of Day 3 took a while, with rain in Sydney in the morning disrupting the Test match. It stopped and started a few times, ensuring that play never got under way - at one point, rain resumed just a couple of minutes before the players were about to resume. It was a full four hours after the scheduled start of play when play finally began with Younis setting the tone with a four first ball. Wade went off the field after a couple of overs, apparently feeling sick with Handscomb taking over wicket-keeping duties. Hazlewood had a big appeal for LBW against Azhar which was turned down - the review was wasted due to umpire's call. Azhar was a touch nervous, driving one well but also hitting a cover drive that almost carried to the fielder in the circle. The breakthrough finally came as Azhar was dismissed in what was seemingly the only way Australia could get him - run out. There was a mix-up between the two and the opener was short of his crease, for 71. Misbah got a start for the first time in the series, getting away a few shots at Pakistan went to Tea at 177/3 with Younis on 84*.

The visitors got off to a terrible start in the second session as Misbah perished in the second over as he went for a wild hoick against Lyon, giving a simple catch to the fielder at the boundary. Younis motored along towards his hundred, hitting Lyon for a big six in trademark fashion - however, Shafiq was dismissed before that. The batsmen inside-edged one onto his pad with Smith taking a superb catch. Younis brought up his 34th Test hundred, becoming the first to make a Test hundred in 11 different countries. The batsmen batted more aggressively with the second new-ball becoming available soon, with Australia taking it straight away. There was some movement for the bowlers and Younis edged a couple but it was Sarfraz who was next to fall. He went for a big drive against Starc and got a thick outside edge to gully after making 18. Amir soon followed, being tempted by Lyon after a testing over by the spinner, trying to hit him over the top - he only succeeded in giving a catch to mid-off. Wahab held out for a bit while Younis continued at the other end but the tailender fell in the closing moments of the day, getting bowled by Lyon as Pakistan finished at 271/8 with Younis 136*.

Summary: Another good day for Australia as they made good progress in their quest to whitewash Pakistan despite a superb knock by Younis. Around half of the day's play was washed out but that didn't stop the hosts from picking up 6 wickets. Azhar's run out was a real killer blow, with the opener looking extremely solid before the dismissal - it was further amplified by the lack of aptitude displayed by the following batsmen. Younis has in the meantime, made good progress towards the mark of 10,000 Test runs, he's just 75 away. The visitors face a very tough ask on the last two days to save the match.

Fall of wickets:

3-152 (Azhar Ali, 53.2 ov)
4-178 (Misbah-ul-Haq, 65.6 ov)
5-197 (Asad Shafiq, 72.4 ov)
6-239 (Sarfraz Ahmed, 82.3 ov)
7-244 (Mohammad Amir, 85.5 ov)
8-264 (Wahab Riaz, 93.1 ov)

 

[Cricket World]

The turning point of the day or match was to get the man in form run out. We are now staring 3-0 defeat.

 

[pasha404]

Misbah have no shame he should announce retirement

 

[TestMatch]

Will be interesting to see how well YK farms the strike tomorrow. He may still be able to get 150+.

 

[Jabo]

YK doing his typical way

Showing up in the final game
Hope he retires Though the hard part is over now anyway

End/nz/aus tour

 

[omer28]

yk congratulations on a wonderful 100 , Its a pitty that you wont be able to make 200 tom because you will again be batting with the tail as you have done so on many occasions in the past . If yk goes now , pakistan will loose a lot of matches at home as well for a while so we have to be mentally prepared for that . The main reason that pakistan will lose 3-0 in this test series comes down mainly to the following factors

1) pace bowling :- we have one of the worst pace bowling in the world . Sohail khan/ rahat ali and imran khan are below par bowlers and would not make the bowling attack of most teams . amir is an above average bowler but by no means is he an exceptional bolwer ( hugely over rated by pakistani fans) . wahab has always been an inconsistent bowler , when he is great he is a match winner and when not is a very ordinary bowler . Yasir shah on which the team relied so heavily is " uae" conditions has struggled . Yasir shah has never been a big turner of the ball and is more of a variation bowler who bowls straight . In uae conditions he gets a lot of lbws because the ball stays very low as the pitches over there generally break down on the fourth and fifth day . In australia he has been completely neutralized . danish kaneria and mushtaq ahmed have done much better than him in overseas conditions .Yasir has been very lucky that he has never had to defend a total where he would have been tested out like a 200-250 in the fourth innings . Because of younis khans brilliance with the bat . He has had the luxury to play with 400-500 runs in the last innings .
we should have gone with 3 fast bowlers a bowling all rounder and a spinner , The only way to win in australia is to be aggressive . I would have gone with asif and amir to open the bowling ( like you need batting partnerships similarly you need bowling partnerships ) to build pressure on batsmen and get wickets ..asif could also have bowled long spells ( a very accurate bowler) . First change would have been mohammad irfan , his height would have helped him get extraordinary bounce , knowing that he is injury prone ,i would have only bowled him 4 over spells at a time ..maximum 10-12 overs in a day . I would have used wahab riaz only as an attacking option ( 4 over spells at a time maximum) just to get wickets maximum 3 spells in a day . I would have gone with an allrounder ( imad wasim) lower order aggressive batsman and a containing bowler ( you need a containing bowler to provide rest to your pace bowlers) pakistanis bowlers are not the fittest and thats why they lost that little efficacy they had also because of being over bowled and fatigued since yasir shah kept on leaking runs and being wicketless at the other end losing full control of the match

2) batting :- i would have gone with an aggressive batsman as as opener with azhar ali to attack the batsman not a ( slogger) a batsman who could put the bad balls away to release pressure and unsettle opposition bowlers . the rest of the batting order looked fine . ( could have replaced misbah though) but wouldnt have been possible since he was the captain

 

[AZulfi]

Well played Younis but Pak facing certain defeat. The deficit is just too big. And we know that 1.5 sessions are often enough to dismantle our fragile batting in the 3rd/4th innings when there is either pressure to chase or to survive

 

[lahoriyah1234]

yk congratulations on a wonderful 100 , Its a pitty that you wont be able to make 200 tom because you will again be batting with the tail as you have done so on many occasions in the past . If yk goes now , pakistan will loose a lot of matches at home as well for a while so we have to be mentally prepared for that . The main reason that pakistan will lose 3-0 in this test series comes down mainly to the following factors

1) pace bowling :- we have one of the worst pace bowling in the world . Sohail khan/ rahat ali and imran khan are below par bowlers and would not make the bowling attack of most teams . amir is an above average bowler but by no means is he an exceptional bolwer ( hugely over rated by pakistani fans) . wahab has always been an inconsistent bowler , when he is great he is a match winner and when not is a very ordinary bowler . Yasir shah on which the team relied so heavily is " uae" conditions has struggled . Yasir shah has never been a big turner of the ball and is more of a variation bowler who bowls straight . In uae conditions he gets a lot of lbws because the ball stays very low as the pitches over there generally break down on the fourth and fifth day . In australia he has been completely neutralized . danish kaneria and mushtaq ahmed have done much better than him in overseas conditions .Yasir has been very lucky that he has never had to defend a total where he would have been tested out like a 200-250 in the fourth innings . Because of younis khans brilliance with the bat . He has had the luxury to play with 400-500 runs in the last innings .
we should have gone with 3 fast bowlers a bowling all rounder and a spinner , The only way to win in australia is to be aggressive . I would have gone with asif and amir to open the bowling ( like you need batting partnerships similarly you need bowling partnerships ) to build pressure on batsmen and get wickets ..asif could also have bowled long spells ( a very accurate bowler) . First change would have been mohammad irfan , his height would have helped him get extraordinary bounce , knowing that he is injury prone ,i would have only bowled him 4 over spells at a time ..maximum 10-12 overs in a day . I would have used wahab riaz only as an attacking option ( 4 over spells at a time maximum) just to get wickets maximum 3 spells in a day . I would have gone with an allrounder ( imad wasim) lower order aggressive batsman and a containing bowler ( you need a containing bowler to provide rest to your pace bowlers) pakistanis bowlers are not the fittest and thats why they lost that little efficacy they had also because of being over bowled and fatigued since yasir shah kept on leaking runs and being wicketless at the other end losing full control of the match

2) batting :- i would have gone with an aggressive batsman as as opener with azhar ali to attack the batsman not a ( slogger) a batsman who could put the bad balls away to release pressure and unsettle opposition bowlers . the rest of the batting order looked fine . ( could have replaced misbah though) but wouldnt have been possible since he was the captain

My Friend this is a good analysis of the tour. But you have to remember that we have never won in Australia before. This is the best i have seen pakistan play in Australia after a long time. Not to forget we have been playing under a v favorable conditions, under cloudy weather, last day of the MCG game. Saying we should have asif and irfan, yes they would have made a difference. But 1 thing Australia has done great for their chances to beat us again, is prepared a flat tracks, they knew having green pitches, will harm them more because our bowlers are not v skillfull bowlers when it comes to flat tracks, most of the game pakistan have won in UAE are by spinners, v little pacers had anything to do with it.

Going forward pakistan need to find more fast bowlers so they can have rotation every tour. Amir, Wahab, Yasir, they have been playing non- stop, which is crazy, played 11 test matches on the trot. That is too much, misbah is equally to be blamed here, playing yasir on unfavourable conditions which doesn't suit him, not giving taking bowlers like hassan ali, asghar, anwar ali, into Australia to be the back up bowlers. Not playing asghar in this game was a crime, big crime, Australia benefited from playing 2 spinners and we went with 1 spinner who is out of form or playing with an injury. Pakistan need to rebuild bowling department, batting looks solid for the future.

 

[lahoriyah1234]

Will Younis Khan score 200...

With bit of luck and Yasir supporting him you never know. I have a feeling smith will force follow on, if we failed to get that total.