Cricket: http://www.senore.com/Cricket/Pakistan-c755’s Test Match losing streak against Australia, 13 and counting
While Pakistan cricket fans continue to be tormented by their national team’s abject surrender to the Australians, it seems that the players involved in these defeats are not bothered much and simply blame the succession of defeats on bad luck.
At a press conference in Karachi held to launch Mohammad Yousuf and Saeed Anwar’s new business the former national captains blamed lady luck for contributing to the team’s wretched run against the Aussies.
Pakistan has lost a total of 13 test matches on the trot, which includes four consecutive whitewashes in a period spanning nearly 11 years.
The run began at the Gabba in Brisbane is 1999, when Wasim Akram led Pakistan. The visitors were tormented by 10 wickets, through spellbinding hundreds by Michael Slater and Mark Waugh.
In the next match of the series Pakistan squandered a golden opportunity of winning the test and squaring the series after setting the hosts a chase in excess of 360 runs. When the hosts had lost their first five wickets cheaply the tourists were set for a win. Yet all h**l broke loose when Justin Langer and http://www.senore.com/Cricket/Adam-Gilchrist-c918 recorded one of the greatest match-winning partnerships in the history of the game. Both scored contrasting centuries. Gilchrist blazed away, in only his second test, and, Langer provided stoic resistance at the other end.
During the partnership, Langer nicked a ball from http://www.senore.com/Cricket/Khan-c71319, but was ruled not out by the home umpire.
Almost a decade later, the lefthander confessed at a dinner during the third Pakistan-Australia test at Hobart that he had actually nicked the ball and had not walked since his team was in a dire strait.
His confession was brought to the notice of the Pakistani media by Yousuf during the press conference. He took great pains at explaining that more than the incompetence of various Pakistani teams who have taken on the Aussies it was luck that had denied them at crucial stages of various test matches.
Similarly, in the following test series which was played at neutral venues, the Pakistani team squandered another golden opportunity of winning a test, against their greatest nemesis of recent years, when Shoaib Akhtar bowled a sensational spell in the second innings taking five wickets to send shivers down the opposition’s spine. Yet the batsmen threw away the advantage as the Aussies conquered Pakistan again.
The trend continued earlier this year. When another a golden opportunity of squaring the test series in Sydney was lost with the most hopeless displays in recent cricket history when Mohammad Yousuf’s men allowed the hosts to claw back in the game, after the hosts were dismissed for 127 runs in the first innings.
The capitulation in the last innings was another woeful display that left cricket fans bewildered. When pressed to answer for the defeat, Yousuf asked why the media was making a big deal about and that it was only another test match loss. Going on to say he was helpless if the batsmen cannot bat under pressure.
From past experiences we can gather, that while Pakistan’s losing streak continues against http://www.senore.com/Cricket/Australia-c746, the players themselves think it is all bad luck. Given their attitude one can only say that luck and pure luck alone can end the miserable run which at the moment is 13 and counting!
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