Pakistan vs Australia at Headingley – day two report
Career-best Test bowling figures of 6-33 by Shane Watson, and a steadying second-innings partnership between Ricky Ponting and Michael http://www.senore.com/Cricket/Clarke-c51120, have helped Australia fight their way back into contention against Pakistan on day two at Headingley after capitulating for a dismal 88 in their first innings.
Play recommenced with Pakistan on 148-3 and the “hosts” wouldn’t have been unhappy with the way their innings was progressing when the teams headed off the ground for lunch, having lost just two more wickets for the addition of 70 runs.
Mitchell Johnson, who began the day with a wild ball that couldn’t have been a long way off being called a wide, drew the first blood for Australia when he drew the edge from Umar Akmal (21) and Tim Paine did the rest behind the stumps.
The other man out was test novice Umar Amin (25), who ducked under a Ben Hilfenhaus bouncer but left his bat positioned vertically above his head, where it connected with the ball and Marcus North took the simple catch.
But with Australia’s pacemen far from menacing, the end of the http://www.senore.com/Cricket/Pakistan-c755 innings still appeared a fairly distant prospect.
Then came Watson’s destructive spell, as in the first over of the session, the all-rounder enticed Kamran Akmal (15) to edge a swinging delivery into North’s hands in the slips, and the next ball trapping Mohammad Aamer (duck) on the pads to bring up his hat-trick ball at the beginning of his next over.
It wasn’t to be, but by the end of the over http://www.senore.com/Cricket/Shahid-Afridi-c2482’s replacement in the side sent the top edge into Paine’s gloves to depart for 26.
http://www.senore.com/Cricket/Australia-c746 began their second innings 206 runs behind Pakistan and ended up winning the match.
As the third innings of the match began during the afternoon session Salman Butt’s side made the early breakthrough, once again dismissing Simon Katich (13) early at Leeds after extracting the opener at Lord’s had proved to be one of the tougher challenges of the match.
This time, Katich left his leg stump exposed to the teenaged Mohammad Aamer who made no mistake as he bowled the batsman behind his legs.
Watson’s wicket was the next to tumble as the 29-year-old’s bowling outshone his batting efforts for the second consecutive Test as he edged an in-swinging ball into his stumps to hand Umar Amin his first wicket of the innings and leave Australia at 2-55.
Ponting – whose decision to bat first at Leeds, as it was in Sydney, has been called into question – and Clarke then teamed up to guide Australia past their first innings total without further loss, with the skipper going on to post his 12,000th Test run on his way to his 52nd Test half-century.
The pair guided Australia to 136-2, and within 34 runs of Pakistan, before bad light stopped play in the final session of the day.
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