http://www.senore.com/Cricket/Australia-c746 Right At The Top On Day 3
The Australian team has consolidated their position on the third day of the first test series against Pakistan at Lords. It was the overnight partnership of Simon Katich and Mitchell Johnson that took the Aussies to a position of immense strength.
Johnson, the night watch man, was eventually dismissed for 30 as he was bowled out by a fantastic full toss from Umar Gul that gave the bowler his 100th wicket in the 27th test of his career. Johnson and Katich frustrated Pakistani bowlers on the morning of the third day, steadily taking the game out of the reach of Afridi’s men. Despite overcast conditions, the bowlers took easy runs from some wayward bowling that further compounded http://www.senore.com/Cricket/Pakistan-c755’s miseries.
Danesh Kaneria was a major disappointment in his first spell of the day. The leg-spinner looked uncomfortable with the cloud cover which deteriorated his bowling efforts, and made run scoring easy for the opposition.
Game play was stopped at the end of the 48th over of the match with the score at 167 for 5, with the Aussies 272 runs ahead in the game. The match was eventually resumed with Katich and Marcus North steadying the Aussie ship, and making it seem as though they were aiming to take their lead beyond the 400 run mark. Right before lunch, Katich was unbeaten at 83 while North had recovered well from his first innings duck to score an undefeated 20.
The Pakistani Captain, http://www.senore.com/Cricket/Shahid-Afridi-c2482, came on strong right away, employing his leg-breaks in a bid to snare an early wicket. Alas, his efforts were denied as the ball skidded on a wet wicket, rendering his leg-breaks ineffective.
With the circumstances as they are, Pakistan would be hoping of more rain to pull them out of the mire, as even at present the Australian lead which is in excess of 270 runs is set to make the life of the batsmen miserable.
Only Salman Butt looked reassured on the crease during the first innings, while the rest of the batsmen were all at sea against the four pronged Aussie attacks that were led by an unlikely Shane http://www.senore.com/Cricket/Watson-c96326, who claimed five wickets in the innings to have his name registered on the Lords honor board.
Clearly the greatest problem here is the lack of experience of playing under difficult batting conditions as most of the batsmen have been brought up on docile Pakistani tracks where there is hardly any lateral movement.
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