Pakistan on top, despite Australian rally
Pakistan returned to familiar ways of self-destruction when they lost their last seven wickets for just 95 runs on the second day of the second Test against Australia at Headingley.
Then, the Australians rallied back through Ricky Ponting and Michael Clarke, who were unbeaten on 61 and 32 respectively at stumps.
The Australian bowling was much better on the second day than on the first but the same cannot be said for the Pakistani batting. Shane Watson was the pick of the Australian bowlers returning with figures of 6/33. He ripped through the Pakistani lower order and was helped by some poor shot selection by the batsmen.
But it was Mitchell Johnson who got the breakthrough earlier in the day, when he found the edge of Umar Akmal. It was a good ball that made the batsman play and induced an edge. Umar Amin was the next to go, getting out in extraordinary fashion. He ducked into a short ball but failed to bring his bat down and let it stick out like a periscope. The ball found the bat and looped on to Marcus North's square-leg.
Kamran Akmal and Shoaib Malik then steadied the innings and got Pakistan through to lunch. However, immediately after lunch, wickets started tumbling as Watson ran through the lower order. He got Akmal first, making him edge one to North at first slip and then rapped Mohammed Aamer on the pads off the very next ball.
Umar Gul was cleaned up later and then Watson got rid of Malik, who tried to play a rather expansive shot. It was a ball that was well outside off-stump and Malik went for the old-fashioned slog over mid wicket but only managed to sky it high for Tim Paine to take an easy catch. http://www.senore.com/Cricket/Danish-Kaneria-c1314 was run-out after some crazy calling between the wickets that even had the commentators in splits.
http://www.senore.com/Cricket/Watson-c96326 lost concentration and inside-edged a ball from part-time bowler Amin. Australia were 55/2 and were still 115 runs adrift.
The captain Ponting was joined by the vice captain, Clarke, and the pair started the rebuilding process. Ponting has not had a good innings so far in the series and looked shaky to start off with. He was troubled by Aamer’s inswingers early on but managed to stay at the crease and then slowly began to assert his influence.
He was harsh on Gul who had a bad day as he bowled too short on a track that deserved the ball to be pitched up. In the meantime, Ponting also crossed 12000 Test runs when he was on 40, becoming only the second batsman to do so.
http://www.senore.com/Cricket/Clarke-c51120 too had to go through some tough periods, especially when Asif was bowling ,but managed to hang on.
Australia finished the day at 136/2, trailing by 34 runs. It was a great fightback and the momentum has clearly shifted in Australia’s favour. Ponting seemed to have settled and will look to go on and make big score tomorrow.
Unfortunately, Pakistan had become defensive by the end of the day. They need wickets quickly and a defensive strategy will only allow give more control to the Aussies. They need a couple of early wickets tomorrow, probably the wickets of the two who are at the crease now. Though Australia have come back strongly into the game, this is still http://www.senore.com/Cricket/Pakistan-c755’s game to lose. The Pakistani side will need to have a couple of good sessions so that they don’t repeat what they did at Sydney earlier this year, where they snatched defeat from the jaws victory.
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