Amazing Test: Aust v Pakistan Sydney 2010

[jenny61_99]

So there was the dislikable test.... but how about that result today? Absolutely sensational win by the Aussies. One of the best I've ever seen.

I couldn't believe Ponting chose to bat first on this wicket - but in doing so, set up one of his best wins as captain. The Pakistani's field placements today were bamboozling to say the least and of course they did much to contribute to our win. But you can't go past the fact that Hussey and Siddle set up our chance, and our bowlers took it from there.

I never thought we had the bowlers to take a test by the scruff of the neck, but they certainly worked at (or above) their best today. Awesome stuff.

 

[Campbell's Chunky]

Really?

Pakistan lost it, Aussies were just lucky.

No way does this win compare with any of the other great comebacks.

 

[afc1991]

So there was the dislikable test.... but how about that result today? Absolutely sensational win by the Aussies. One of the best I've ever seen.

I couldn't believe Ponting chose to bat first on this wicket - but in doing so, set up one of his best wins as captain. The Pakistani's field placements today were bamboozling to say the least and of course they did much to contribute to our win. But you can't go past the fact that Hussey and Siddle set up our chance, and our bowlers took it from there.

I never thought we had the bowlers to take a test by the scruff of the neck, but they certainly worked at (or above) their best today. Awesome stuff.

Implies his captaincy contributed to the win. The three captains before him were excellent but I reckon hes a very, very average. Good to see whipping boy hauritz get some wickets, looks like hes coming good.

 

[cmndstab]

Awesome win I couldn't believe it when the Pakistani wickets started to fall in that last innings


Man am I the kiss of death though. Every time I watch or listen to the Aussies they start to get out like no man's business I was delighted to see Hussey and Siddle still in at midday so I turned on the radio while driving to Uni which is less than ten minutes and Australia were all out There have been similar stories all summer.

 

[brucetiki]

I reckon Pakistan debutant Mahand Aroundmyneck should have got MOTM

 

[TheLeftFist8]

I reckon Pakistan debutant Mahand Aroundmyneck should have got MOTM

One man was the real difference between the two sides....Kamran Awful.

Absolutely ridiculous that he is selected at present. Not keeping to test standard atm but stays in on prior reputation and a supposedly batting ability (which is contributing nothing at present anyway).

If only they could get their act together.

Younis Khan, Shahid Afridi even, a decent keeper, a fit Mohammed Aamer and suddenly there is a team that would probably beat Australia comfortably.

 

[Symesy15]

My dad is sure that something's not right with the Pakistan team - he thinks it was a bit of match fixing, especially given their weird fielding positions yesterday morning during our innings - and the catches their wicket keeper dropped..
I told him to stop being so cynical and just enjoy a great win, but he's certain something's up and thinks there will be an investigation into the game.

The Pakistan team probably went and put money on the Aussies to win yesterday morning

 

[jenny61_99]

Implies his captaincy contributed to the win. The three captains before him were excellent but I reckon hes a very, very average. Good to see whipping boy hauritz get some wickets, looks like hes coming good.

Implies nothing of the sort. He had been hauled over every media (and armchair expert) coals for making a very poor decision to bat on a green and wet pitch. As he and many others (commentators) suggested, a game is not won or lost on the first day of a test and history has shown that the Sydney pitch is notoriously hard to chase runs on in the final innings.

Ponting is not a great Captain I agree, I also question the "sportsmanship" (or lack there-of) under his captaincy, however he captained very well in yesterdays final innings. Did the Pakistani's throw the game? The question will always be there, however it is not the first time a team has capitulated under pressure chasing a modest total, and also you cannot forget that they are an inexperienced test team.

I don't care what anybody says - that win was up there with some of the best and it was all thanks to Hussey and Siddle giving us a decent score for them to chase.

 

[Alex99]

In this history of cricket, as a batter Ricky Ponting would be in the top 5 or 6 of all time, his ability is awesome to watch but as a captain, he wouldn’t even be in Australia’s top 10. He is a dreadful captain; he is boring, predictable and unimaginative with his bowling attack under pressure situations. He was lucky yesterday.

We didn’t win yesterday because of any captaincy decision he made, we won because the Australian players had a much higher level of skill on the final day and a half. Shane Watson, Michael Hussey and Peter Siddle’s batting kept us in the game and then Mitchell Johnson and Nathan Hauritz bowling won it for us.

The win yesterday had nothing to do with Ricky Ponting, if we lose, he his decision to bat first on that track would/should have lost it, but he didn’t make any decisions that won the match.

 

[jenny61_99]

I agree with most of what you have written about his past performances, however I would argue the fact that he DID captain well yesterday. Normally he would have stayed with his two opening bowlers for much longer than he did. Necessity (being that we were only defending a modest lead) demanded he try something different, quickly. And he did. He also normally doesn't use Johnson until the ball is softer. Also Hauritz was bleeding runs in his overs before the tea break - and much to my surprise AND delight, he gave him another go immediately after the break for a great result. That was a gutsy move on a pretty good track when we didn't have the luxury of a big lead. He was also far more attacking in his field placements than he normally is. He inexplicably appears to favour defensive field settings most of the time. Yesterday he did not. So like him or not, I don't think you can question his captaincy yesterday. (The same, of course, cannot be said for the opening day!).

And whilst Pakistan made our job easier, a good captain will take advantage of that. He did. Nuff said.

 

[Vader]

You have to wonder just how much money changed hands in order to bring about this result. There's no way that a team which genuinely wanted to win would have played the way that Pakistan did in the morning session yesterday...

Congrats to Ponting and his players for the way they performed in Pakistan's 2nd innings. Doesn't justify his stupid decision to bat on the greentop though.

History shows that it's very difficult to bat on the SCG in the 4th innings. This wasn't your standard SCG pitch - the pitch was probably at its BEST for batting on the 4th day, having been diabolical on day 1 and improved every day since.

 

[Elder van Berlo]

Surely, surely this match was fixed.

And the amount of "Ponting vindication" going around is annoying me.

1. To beat a mediocre Pakistan team missing their best bowler and one of their best batsman by 30-odd runs is NOT vindication of his decision. If we'd bowled first we would have won by an innings.

2. I only caught a clip of it, but was he gloating when he said that it's about backing your team to score more in the first innings than the opposition in the 4th? Because I don't know if anyone noticed, but despite their calamitous (and probably corrupt) effort yesterday, Pakistan's 4th innings STILL outscored our 1st.

The one good thing to come from losing this test is that Ponting would have learned a lesson, but now he's probably praising himself for being so clever. Next time we bat first on a pitch like that against decent, honourable opposition, we'll get pasted. And Ponting will point to this match as evidence that he actually made the right decision. Terrible captain.

 

[amer]

You have to wonder just how much money changed hands in order to bring about this result. There's no way that a team which genuinely wanted to win would have played the way that Pakistan did in the morning session yesterday...

Congrats to Ponting and his players for the way they performed in Pakistan's 2nd innings. Doesn't justify his stupid decision to bat on the greentop though.

History shows that it's very difficult to bat on the SCG in the 4th innings. This wasn't your standard SCG pitch - the pitch was probably at its BEST for batting on the 4th day, having been diabolical on day 1 and improved every day since.

My word you are talking some rubbish here. Unmitigated rubbish. Money changing hands? Get real, Mitchell Johnson bowled as well as he has for quite a while to put pressure on their top order and that changed the course of the game.

Thoroughly sick of this mentally weak, negative attitude people have towards Australian sport. The sportspeople themselves are great, but some of the spectators are nothing short of mortifying to have around. "The Australians are arrogant unsportsmanlike twats! The sky is falling down because we're under a fraction of pressure and the game isn't completely sewn up! *cry* *winge* *moan*"

I shudder to think how some of the people who make these comments would perform at pressure stages in sports themselves. Pathetically I would suggest.

 

[Elder van Berlo]

My word you are talking some rubbish here. Unmitigated rubbish. Money changing hands? Get real, Mitchell Johnson bowled as well as he has for quite a while to put pressure on their top order and that changed the course of the game.

What changed the game was that at 8 down and 50 in front, Pakistan didn't even try to finish us off. I will go to the grave believing shenanigans were at work in this game.

 

[Vader]

My word you are talking some rubbish here. Unmitigated rubbish. Money changing hands? Get real, Mitchell Johnson bowled as well as he has for quite a while to put pressure on their top order and that changed the course of the game.

You might notice that I referred specifically to the first session of the day's play - when Mike Hussey and Peter Siddle held out the Pakistan bowling attack for 2 1/2 hours and picked up 130 odd runs in the process. Had Pakistan held their catches or played attacking cricket, then I have little doubt that they would have won by 50 odd runs rather than losing by 30 odd.

Johnson & Hauritz both performed admirably and I haven't said or indicated anything to the contrary.

Thoroughly sick of this mentally weak, negative attitude people have towards Australian sport. The sportspeople themselves are great, but some of the spectators are nothing short of mortifying to have around. "The Australians are arrogant unsportsmanlike twats! The sky is falling down because we're under a fraction of pressure and the game isn't completely sewn up! *cry* *winge* *moan*"

Do you honestly think that Ponting made the correct decision - to bat on that pitch on day 1? The decision was completely ludicrous and would have cost his team the game, were it not for some extremely suspicious decisions made by the Pakistani players on the 4th day of the test match.

I have said precious little about the Australian sports people, other than stating the bleeding obvious that Ponting made a phenomenally stupid decision to bat on day 1. I haven't even posted in the thread discussing the ugly Australian syndrome in the cricket team of the 90s.

We all know that the current Australian team is a pale shadow of the team we had 5 years ago. That's what happens when you lose players of the calibre of Warne, McGrath, Waugh & Hayden. I honestly expected Pakistan to wipe the floor with us in this series, given how poorly we performed against the Windies - who are the worst test team in the world other than the Zimbabwe & Bangladeshi minnows. The fact that the Australians have managed to step up to a higher level when playing against a better quality opponent is a credit to them.

The real question is what the current Australian cricket team is capable of, with respect to the opponent they are facing. We saw in Melbourne that Australia are significantly better than Pakistan - and the addition of their best bowler (Kaneria) should not have been enough to close the gap. Three days into the Sydney test and the Australians had their pants pulled down around their ankles, due almost entirely to a bizarre decision by Ricky Ponting. Is this not worthy of comment and/or criticism?

Why should we fawn all over this bunch of primadonnas? Should we not be able to pass fair comment? Praise them when they do something praiseworthy (as they did in the 4th innings), balancing the praise with criticism when it is deserved.

 

[Vader]

What changed the game was that at 8 down and 50 in front, Pakistan didn't even try to finish us off. I will go to the grave believing shenanigans were at work in this game.

Precisely. I find it hard to believe that someone in the Pakistani camp didn't get a call from "John" overnight, instructing them to tank for all they were worth the following day. That first session fiasco had to have happened for a reason.

 

[jenny61_99]

Ok, so the test when we only had to score 117 (I think) to win, and we were bowled out for 111 - we threw that? We had bets on it (against ourselves apparently) and threw it away?

It's always easy to declare "something fishy must have happened" but cricket is a very fickle game. Just when you think you've got it nutted out, somebody throws a curve ball (both literally and figuratively).

Yes, we know there are instances where match fixing have occured, however, the Pakistani people take their cricket very seriously and I believe their wicket keeper (and others) will be in serious trouble on his return. Is fixing a match worth that sort of reaction?

Sometimes, the pressure gets to you and you make mistakes. We've seen it happen countless times in this game over the years - were they all "fixed" matches too?

 

[Vader]

Not at all. I don't think there's anything suspicious about Australia getting bundled out cheaply in the first innings either - and you could have used that as an example just as easily.

What is suspicious is the bizarre tactics used by Pakistan in that first session on day 4. They had Australia on their knees with victory almost certain. Instead of going in for the kill, they went on the defensive and deliberately allowed Australia to get themselves back into the game. I'm not even going to theorise as to the possibility that some of those dropped catches might have been intentional.

What happened in the 4th innings is something which happens occasionally. Teams choke under pressure. England did it in Adelaide in 2006, bowled out for 129 on the last day of the test - a test which appeared destined for a draw before the Poms calamitous collapse.

When it happens immediately after a session like the first.. that's when suspicions become aroused.

 

[amer]

You might notice that I referred specifically to the first session of the day's play - when Mike Hussey and Peter Siddle held out the Pakistan bowling attack for 2 1/2 hours and picked up 130 odd runs in the process. Had Pakistan held their catches or played attacking cricket, then I have little doubt that they would have won by 50 odd runs rather than losing by 30 odd.

If Ponting didn't get out hooking for a golden duck then we would've made more runs in our first innings. If Hilfenhaus didn't flare his knee up we would've gotten them out for less. All completely speculative statements that don't mean anything at all.

The real question is what the current Australian cricket team is capable of, with respect to the opponent they are facing. We saw in Melbourne that Australia are significantly better than Pakistan - and the addition of their best bowler (Kaneria) should not have been enough to close the gap. Three days into the Sydney test and the Australians had their pants pulled down around their ankles, due almost entirely to a bizarre decision by Ricky Ponting. Is this not worthy of comment and/or criticism?

Of course the decision was a poor one, but you're intent on attempting to put the victory down to shenanigans which is disgraceful. Every time I turn around it's the same crap - England collapsed rather than Shane Warne bowling EXCEPTIONALLY well, being the freak of nature that he was; Pakistan threw the game, there's no possibility that they panicked in the face of resistance when they thought they had the job done, and simply reacted too defensively, and there's no chance that Johnson got the ball tailing away and landing right in the danger area to dismiss their top order and pile the pressure on a combination of batsmen who've forgotten how to win and some very inexperienced heads.

Give me a break. Did you happen to look at the averages of some of those blokes?

 

[Vader]

I dont think they deliberately threw the game, though I do think match fixing was involved. Betting markets are more than just win or lose. My guess is that the Pakistanis were told to ensure the Aussies reached a certain minimum score, ensuring the bookies covered the spread. What happened in the 4th innings was probably all above board, a choke by a Pakistani team demoralised by having been told to play below their best earlier in the day, combined with some very good cricket by an Australian team who had something to prove.

 

[jenny61_99]

Not at all. I don't think there's anything suspicious about Australia getting bundled out cheaply in the first innings either - and you could have used that as an example just as easily.

What is suspicious is the bizarre tactics used by Pakistan in that first session on day 4. They had Australia on their knees with victory almost certain. Instead of going in for the kill, they went on the defensive and deliberately allowed Australia to get themselves back into the game. I'm not even going to theorise as to the possibility that some of those dropped catches might have been intentional.

What happened in the 4th innings is something which happens occasionally. Teams choke under pressure. England did it in Adelaide in 2006, bowled out for 129 on the last day of the test - a test which appeared destined for a draw before the Poms calamitous collapse.

When it happens immediately after a session like the first.. that's when suspicions become aroused.

You can't isolate day 3 and say that is a direct result of match fixing then turn around and say that what happened in the 4th innings (Pakistan's capitulation) is "something which happens occasionally".

Surely Captains make bad errors of judgement, bad field placements, using the wrong bowler, being too defensive - every game? (Ricky Ponting is notorious for that!). Dropped catches are also a common occurrence - how many catches did we drop? How many (uncharacteristic) poor fielding examples? Could it not be a co-incidence (albeit a horrible nightmare)?

Had Australia lost this game, I wonder if people would accuse the Aussies of match fixing based on their bewildering decision to bat on day 1? That was no less bewildering than Pakistan's fielding decisions surely?

 

[Vader]

Thankfully, no Australian has yet been accused of match fixing - though Warne & Mark Waugh came close. The only thing they ever admitted to was reporting the state of the pitch & weather, giving the bookies some inside info. Whether an Australian has actually been involved in match fixing is an entirely different matter - it's entirely possible and I think it's highly unlikely that our cricketers are any different from those of the other nations.

Pakistan HAVE been accused of match fixing in the past, most notably with regard to some very suspicious World Cup ODI losses to the non-test playing nations. It's not like you have to go terribly far into the past either... one of their own government officials accused them of match fixing in last year's Champions Trophy:
http://edition.cnn.com/2009/SPORT/10/06/cricket.pakistan.fixing.champions.trophy/index.html
Where there's this much smoke, there has to be some fire....

To prevent accusations of racism, I'll also point out that a couple of white South Africans (Cronje and Gibbs) also admitted to match fixing. It's certainly not a problem which is restricted to people of any particular race or nationality.

Yes, everyone makes mistakes... but the blunders made by the Pakistani team in that first session go beyond anything which could be explained away as brain farts by a team under pressure.

Ponting tends to be defensive, but usually when he has the runs on the board and can afford to give a bit away. Pakistan were in a position where they should have been circling for the kill, not circling the boundary in an attempt to limit the scoreboard damage rather than trying to get the batsmen out.

Dropped catches are one thing.. but when was the last time a wicket keeper at this level dropped 4 in one innings, most of which were crucial to the outcome of the game?

 

[Drugs Are Bad Mackay?]

Cricket has certainly been tainted by previous match fixing scandals. Now any inept performance will have question marks over it, the same as any record breaking Olympic athlete will, at some stage, have their 'cleanliness' called into question.

It is a natural reaction from sporting spectators who don't want to be duped again.

 

[aneale]

Thankfully, no Australian has yet been accused of match fixing - though Warne & Mark Waugh came close. The only thing they ever admitted to was reporting the state of the pitch & weather, giving the bookies some inside info. Whether an Australian has actually been involved in match fixing is an entirely different matter - it's entirely possible and I think it's highly unlikely that our cricketers are any different from those of the other nations.

Pakistan HAVE been accused of match fixing in the past, most notably with regard to some very suspicious World Cup ODI losses to the non-test playing nations. It's not like you have to go terribly far into the past either... one of their own government officials accused them of match fixing in last year's Champions Trophy:
http://edition.cnn.com/2009/SPORT/10/06/cricket.pakistan.fixing.champions.trophy/index.html
Where there's this much smoke, there has to be some fire....

To prevent accusations of racism, I'll also point out that a couple of white South Africans (Cronje and Gibbs) also admitted to match fixing. It's certainly not a problem which is restricted to people of any particular race or nationality.

Yes, everyone makes mistakes... but the blunders made by the Pakistani team in that first session go beyond anything which could be explained away as brain farts by a team under pressure.

Ponting tends to be defensive, but usually when he has the runs on the board and can afford to give a bit away. Pakistan were in a position where they should have been circling for the kill, not circling the boundary in an attempt to limit the scoreboard damage rather than trying to get the batsmen out.

Dropped catches are one thing.. but when was the last time a wicket keeper at this level dropped 4 in one innings, most of which were crucial to the outcome of the game?

none of them hard either. A 16yo wicketkeeper would have taken all of them.

Obviously there are some major concerns from the PCB who will be reviewing all performances, which is what happens when you have the reputation that Pakistan cricket has. Akmal has all but been accused by the PCB sending out a kid to replace him and have the dreaded finger of Rashid Latif pointed his way.

 

[Elder van Berlo]

In fairness to Kamran Akmal, he is a wretched keeper at the best of times. I don't find the dropped catches anywhere near as suspicious as the field placings on the 4th morning or the cavalier batting in the 4th innings.