Cricket Update: Pakistani Test Cricket Captain Salman Butt led his team to victory over Australia after 15 years
He has achieved in his first test as captain what many Pakistan captains with considerably more experience than him could not achieve even after many tries.
http://www.senore.com/Cricket/Salman-c88163 Butt had led Pakistan to a test match win over the Aussies, which was his country’s first win over their greatest nemesis in fifteen years.
The win also broke the sequence of 13 consecutive defeats at the hands of the Aussies, which included four white washes besides the first test at Lords last week which they won by 150 runs.
Despite the historic win, there was an air of calm about Salman, as he dedicated the win to his countrymen deprived of top flight international cricket due to the prevailing security situation in their land.
Before we talk about Butt’s leadership in the match, let us reflect at various captains and modern greats form Pakistan who failed to beat the Aussies even once in a test match.
In 1998, Pakistan was led by Aamer Sohail in what was the last Australian tour of http://www.senore.com/Cricket/Pakistan-c755; the hosts lost the three match series 1-0.
The 1999 team that toured Australia was arguably the strongest ever to undertake a tour down under, possessing batsmen of the quality of Ijaz Ahmed, Inzamam Ul Haq, Mohammad Yousuf, Saeed Anwar and wicket-keeper batsman Moin http://www.senore.com/Cricket/Khan-c71319.
The bowling was equally potent with the likes of http://www.senore.com/Cricket/Saqlain-Mushtaq-c88743 in the fray.
But unlike most times, the bowlers led the team down, losing the Brisbane test, and Hobart one after the Aussies were down and out for the count http://www.senore.com/Cricket/Adam-Gilchrist-c918 accompanied with Justin Langer slammed belligerent hundreds to break a million hearts and chase what was then the third highest chase in test history.
The despondent team gifted the third test at Perth, enduring a clean sweep, things hardly got better three years later when in neutral tests in Colombo and Sharjah, the young Pakistani team under the leadership of Waqar Younis found the task beyond them.
They were blown away in the tests in Sharjah, while in Colombo a masterful display of reverse swing at lightening pace from Shoaib Akhtar went in vain.
The return series in 2004-5 was once again a disaster for Pakistan who were bowled out for 70 odd in the second innings of the opening Perth test with Glenn McGrath taking eight wickets in the innings.
Inzamam Ul Haq the designated captain for the series pulled out of the team after the first test citing a back injury, handing the reins to Mohammad Yousuf.
Yousuf also failed to inspire the team much despite stroking a sublime hundred in the second test at the Melbourne Cricket Ground.
The three match series was lost three nil and the losing streak reached 9.
There was more heartbreak and embarrassment in store when the team undertook a tour of http://www.senore.com/Cricket/Australia-c746 in December last year.
The opening test was lost comfortably at MCG, following by the most painful defeat of them all at the Sydney Cricket Ground.
The match was surrendered with a meagre 176 needed for a win, after the Pakistanis had mopped the Aussies for 127 runs on the opening day of the match.
Some of the most negative and drab captaincy ever by Mohammad Yousuf saw the Aussies recover from 51 for 8 to their eventual lead of 176, that proved to be too much of an ask for his fragile batting line-up.
The final test at Bellerive Oval in Hobart was also a drubbing for Pakistan, and the defeat count reached 12.
The 13th defeat was under http://www.senore.com/Cricket/Shahid-Afridi-c2482 captaincy in Lords last week, who realised immediately that test cricket was not his cup of tea.
Only a week later Salman Butt with a masterful display from his bowlers carved out a special win for Pakistan, despite their last minute effort of gifting the match to the Aussies.
Butt has thus achieved something incredible for the terminally controversy plagued team of Pakistan, and let us hope that Pakistan have more of him at the helm, especially in test cricket and the fans of the cricket mad nation don’t get to see another losing streak in double figures.
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