da esoccer bet： For the first time in nearly 15 years, Pakistan have their best chance to do anything other than be thrashed by Australia
Osman Samiuddin at the MCG25-Dec-2009
Umar Akmal’s impressive performance in Australia on an A tour bodes well for the series•Getty Images
With due pardon to England and South Africa, no country would be as happyto be not facing Glenn McGrath and Shane Warne anymore as Pakistan. In 14Tests the pair played together against Pakistan, they picked up astaggering 157 wickets between them, leading to 11 wins and only twolosses; pace and spin have never been, and are unlikely to ever again be, thispotent, at least until Usain Bolt signs up with Max Clifford. Largelybecause of the two, Pakistan have lost nine Tests in a row to Australia.They’ve come close to winning only one. In hip-hop parlance, Pakistan haslong been Australia’s she-dog.The pair’s reign brought out the worst truths about Pakistan’s batting;McGrath exposed inadequacies with bounce and indiscipline outside off andWarne burst open regularly and brutally the myth that Pakistan could playspin. They have only ever played Indian spin well. Now, as moreteams are discovering, they will also find out that Australia without thatpair is not the same Australia at all. Now, for the first time in nearly15 years, Pakistan have their best chance to do anything other than bethrashed by Australia. A Test win is not beyond them, though a first-everseries win in the country probably is.”That was a top bowling attack and those two were the best in the world,”Yousuf, who averaged under 30 against them, said. “That is all in the past now. I want to be realisticabout our chances this time round. This is not Twenty20. We need to playgood cricket over five whole days, not just a session or two.”Many things will have to go right for the realism to come through, notleast the batting. Yousuf is another in a long line of Pakistani batsmento have fared poorly against Australia, though at least he has the memoryof a shimmering Boxing Day hundred in 2004-05 to fall back on. YounisKhan is not around, so the burden on Yousuf and the Akmal brothers down theorder is already inordinately great.The younger Umar scored big in Australia on an A tour against a handyattack earlier this year which bodes well. Mostly, just the prospect ofwatching a rare and genuine batting talent is enough and only excitabilitycan do him in; at nets on Friday, he was the last man to leave and thattoo only after Waqar Younis, the bowling and fielding coach, told him to so as to ensure he is relaxed before the Test. But one of the openers and one from the middle order of Faisal Iqbal or Misbah-ul-Haq will have to produce something somewhere.And though spilt catches do not always mean lost matches in Pakistan’scase – they dropped six in Wellington and still won comfortably – they cannot afford to be lax here of all places. They have an attack that creates a fair amount of work in the slips and the absence of Younis, in that regard, becomes doubly harmful.The brightest prospects for a Pakistan win, however, revolve around theirpace attack. Pakistan’s finest moments in Australia historically have beenpace-oriented. Imran Khan’s Sydney 12, Sarfraz Nawaz’s Melbourne spell ofseven for one, Wasim Akram’s coming of age in 1990-91, a couple of ShoaibAkhtar spells in the 2000s; what cheer there has been has come from fastbowlers. This time, Mohammad Asif, Mohammad Aamer and Umar Gul combine togive Pakistan a lovely shape where most angles, save perhaps extreme pace,are covered. They should enjoy the conditions here. Danish Kaneria hasfond memories of Australia too but the suspicion is that he will be a finefoil to any success, rather than an instigator.The package can be a formidable one, as Ricky Ponting acknowledged.”They’re a better team than West Indies, a more skilled group ofplayers, no doubt about that,” Ponting said. “We know with Pakistan whenthey put their best foot forward they are a very, very good cricket team,no doubt, Tests, ODIs and Twenty20. They have a lot of mystery about them,probably the word that sums them up the best. There are a number of verygood players, the young left-arm quickie [Aamer] looks good, Gul has beenaround, Asif is a world class bowler, Kaneria too. Mohammad Yousuf, thetwo Akmals – a number of very good players in their side that we will haveto pay attention to. They are unpredictable, one day brilliant, anotherday pretty ordinary. We have to make sure they have more ordinary daysthan brilliant ones over the next few weeks.”