Pakistan 304/2 [Younis Ahmed 111*, Azhar Ali 101*, Mohammad Hafiz 45, Ahmed Shehzad 35, M J Johnson 1/50, NM Lyon 1/86]
DHAKA: Brilliant Batting by top order Pakistani batsmen put them on command at stumps on the first day of Abu Dhabi test. Star batsman Younis Khan has rocked strong Australian Cricket team in the desert dust of UAE scoring three back to back quality centuries. He remains not out scoring unbeaten 111 at Abu Dhabi after scoring centuries in both innings at Dubai test which Pakistan won by a huge margin of 221 runs. At 308 /2 and unbeaten 3rd wicket partnership of 208 with Azhar Ali also unbeaten 101 Australians are in desperate situation. By the look of it Pakistan from this commanding position is going to post an impressive first innings total which may assure them an impregnable position of not losing the test at least. If that happens, Pakistan will win the two test match series. Winning the series by 1-0 will take Pakistan to 4th place in ICC test ranking and if they can whitewash, Pakistan will achieve 3rd position. Abu Dhabi test is only 20% complete. Still there is lot to play for. Still many dramatic things can happen and in cricket Drama do happen.
Pakistan performing consistently (something rare in their cricket in recent times) has already exposed weakness of Australian present cricket team in adjusting to different conditions. Bowling under the hot climate on a low slow wicket has exposed the lack of depth and diversity of the attack. No other than Mitchel Johnson could make any impression at all. From what we have seen so far this Australian attack cannot earn a victory of Australia against this determined Pakistan now which has its tail up. The spin attack looks ordinary. Siddle and Mitchel Marsh can only make the numbers.
Younis Khan the star Pakistan batsmen scoring three centuries on the trot against Australia has already joined a very elite club with English batsman Herbert Sutcliffe scored in 1924-25 ashes series. Younis Khan now also averages at least 50 in each of the four innings of a Test. The only other batsmen who average 50-plus in all four innings are Don Bradmanand and former England great Herbert Sutcliffe. Only three other Pakistani players Zaheer Abbas, Mudassar Nazar and Mohammad Yousuf had achieved the feat of scoring three test centuries on a trot. Four Paksiatni batsmen have already scored six centuries in the current series. Pakistan batsmen scored only six hundreds against Australia between 1999 and 2010.
Younis has a hundreds to fifties ratio of 0.96 in Tests. He has scored 27 hundreds and 28 fifties. This is the fifth best conversion ratio among players who have scored at least 20 Test hundreds.
Younis will feel great that he has already entered a very select group top cricket greats whose conversion rates were better and comparable with his feat. The list does not include even Sachin Tendulkar, Brian Lara, Ricky Ponting and Jack Kallis. But there are greats like redoubtable Sir Donald Bradman, Wally Hammond, Neil Harvey and Sir Garfield Sobers. Among the current players only MJ Clarke and Hashim Amla are in the select group.
Even a couple of weeks before the series Younis was unsure about playing in the series. He was dropped from the ODI team after leaving the series prematurely against Sri Lanka for family urgency. He was disgruntled and advised Pakistan board not to consider him for tests also. It was great that PCB could persuade the sentimental Pathan. Pakistan looked awfully miserable after getting Kangaroo washed in ODI series. Even the captain Shahid Afridi who deputized for Misbah Ul Huq in the third ODI did not have any clue how Pakistan can prove competitive with the side in the ensuing ICC world Cup in 2015 at Australia and New Zealand.
But in the test series Pakistan dramatically turned around with their back to the wall. All front line bowlers were not available for different reasons. Star spinner Saeed Aajmal for suspect bowling action got suspended, Wahab Riaz, Junaid Khan and Mohammad Irfan were injured. Pakistan had to come up with raw untested bowling attack comprising of Rahat Ali, Imran Khan, Zulfqur Babar and Yasir Shah. Imran and Yasir had their debut at Dubai, Rahat and Babar had some experience at test level. Pakistan had desperate situation in batting. But the batsmen magically turned the table on far superior Australian team. Brilliant batting of Younis, Ahmed Shehzad, Asad Shafiq, Sarfraz Ahmed, Misbah ul Huq and excellent bowling by Babar, Yasir earned them a massive win by 221 runs at Dubai. Australians looked completely out of shorts in handling spins of Pakistan. King Babar and mystery bowler Yasir teased and tormented Australians.
Australians got so perplexed that they had to go for Maxwell X Factor to try and address their batting puzzle. Max will bat at number three at test which is very unusual when the team has tried and tested Philip Huge in the team. True Huge was not very successful against India in India but playing an all-rounder at number three exposes the weakness of Australian top order against genuine spin on a spinning track.
Anyway Australians lost the loss and had to spend a punishing day under desert sun at Abu Dhabi on a bowlers’ graveyard where all Pakistani batsmen took some test of Australian bowling skill. Shehzad and Hafiz gave them a reasonably good start and from then Younis and Azhar built on run pyramid frustrating all efforts of MJ Clark trying with 8 bowlers. Younis looked in sparkling form and Azhar also looked extremely confident. Both scored century and remained unconquered in a 208 runs partnership. Pakistan is looking great for a massive first innings which may take the game and series way beyond Australia’s grasp. India and South Africa are summer visitors of Australia before World Cup. If Australia ultimately lose the series this will create some issues for them for sure.
BDST: 0838HRS, OCT 31, 2014
