http://www.senore.com/Cricket/Australia-c746 v Pakistan, 1st Test at Lord’s, Day Two: Plays of the day
Hussey gathers some important crumbs:
Overnight, the Aussies were 229/9. The http://www.senore.com/Cricket/Pakistan-c755 side would have expected to clear the last pair up as quickly as they could have, but would have realised that Michael Hussey, their consistent scourge in the games the two sides have played this year would have been a probable issue. And he was, till the last wicket was finally dislodged.
Hussey gathered 24 further runs on the second morning of the first Test match at Lord’s and though they do not sound too many, in the case of this game, where the ball will swing around throughout the duration of the Test match, the runs may prove to be very valuable. Hussey remained unbeaten on 56 before Mohammad Aamer scalped his fourth wicket of the innings in the form of Doug Bollinger.
Watto comes to the party, finally!
If one were to ask an Australian fan, who, they thought was the best player in the previous season for the Aussies, the answer would have been an unequivocal, Shane Watson. Then, suddenly, the purple patch that Watson had been going through seemed to fading in the last couple of months. The runs seemed to have dried up, but what was worse was that his bowling had turned as ordinary as someone who is probably hiding an injury.
Even in the first innings of this game, he scored only four before he was out twice – LBW according to the umpire and bowled according to the score-sheet! However, the turnaround seems to have finally come in the first innings of the Pakistani innings, when he went on to scalp five wickets to send the batsmen running for cover.
The spell seemed to have come out of the blue. He seemed to have been given the ball because there was something in the pitch and the Australian captain, Ricky Ponting would have wanted to get something out of the pitch from a medium pacer before moving towards his spinning options.
As it turned out, Ponting did not have to get his spinner on! Watson bowled less than eight overs and scalped 5/40. That was the best bowling production for http://www.senore.com/Cricket/Watson-c96326 in Test matches so far.
Paine, the only debutant to shine:
As mentioned in our plays of the day for this game yesterday, the match had seen four debutants get their first caps, and of the four, Tim Paine and Steve Smith were in action with the bat yesterday. Both had failed.
On the second day, all the four players were in action, on the field, but only Paine managed to impress behind the stumps. He pouched four catches, including, funnily, that of both the debutants, Azhar Ali and Umar Amin.
Azhar Ali pottered around for a 16 off 43 balls, that was to become the third-highest score in the Pakistan innings, while Amin scored one.
Later, when one expected that the Aussies will bring on Smith to bowl, Watson’s five wicket haul meant that the captain wasn’t looking too far away from his seam bowlers and Smith did not get a chance.
Well-left and bye-bye!
There were two such dismissals in which the batsman had misjudged the length of the ball and the cherry swung back in, and to the horror of the batsman, sent him on his way. First it was Kamran Akmal who padded up to Watson and was caught plumb in front.
Then it was Michael Clarke. The Aussies were comfortably placed at 97/2 when Umar Gul was called upon for some magic. And he stuck in the very first over of the spell as Clare shouldered arms to one that cut back in and bowled http://www.senore.com/Cricket/Clarke-c51120. Hussey followed with the next ball and the Aussies were suddenly 97/4.
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