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Oz blitz Pak, win first Test

Faisal Shariff

Even before Australia finished celebrating their victory over Pakistan in the first Test, their skipper, Steve was on the flight to Sydney for,what according to him, was the most important delivery of his life.

His wife is due to give birth to their second child today.

Australia required just 14 balls after lunch on the fifth day at the Gabba to wrap up the first Test by 10 wickets. Greg Blewett and Michael Slater continued their successful run together and put up yet another half-century partnership in double quick time. The duo scored 74 in 14.2 overs to guide Australia to their second consecutive 10-wicket victory, following the one in Harare against the Zimbabweans.

It is ironic that it was Pakistan's bowling -- perceived by experts as their strength -- that caused their downfall at the Gabba. The Pak bowlers, barring Akram, were pedestrian, with their quicks -- Shoaib Akthar in particular -- committing the cardinal sin of bowling way too short. Australians, brought up on the cut and the pull, find such bowling meat and drink, and Pakistan paid the price for what, in essence, was shoddy thinking. Crucially, the Pakistan attack failed to pick up the last wicket in the first Australian innings, which eventually made the vital difference as it enabled the home side to stretch its lead to an unassailable 208.

Wasim Akram will have his work cut out for him going into the second Test at the Hobart, at the Bellerieve Oval -- the only silver lining in the cloud being that his main strike bowler, Saqlain Mushtaq, will be match fit by then.

Another area where Pakistan's think tank failed was in realising the importance of time. While the Pak batsmen scored at a crackling pace, they didn't spend enough time at the crease to shut the Australians out of the game -- in fact, it worked the other way around since, despite Pakistan's relatively big totals, Australia had plenty of time to plan its first innings and work towards a winning position.

Michael Slater was named Man of the Match, though a fairer selection would have been Damien Fleming. On a track where batsmen found runs easy to come by, Fleming took wickets at regular intervals and effectively won the match for his side.

Starting the day from their overnight score of 223/4, Pakistan lost their first wicket off the very first ball of the day. It was a freak dismissal, when Warne bowled a full toss to Razzaq who pushed straight into the hands of Ricky Ponting.

Saeed Anwar was troubled by McGrath, and eventually, after a half hour of struggle that fetched the batsman just two more runs to add to his overnight score, Anwar flashed outside the off-stump for Gilchrist to complete the formalities.

Pakistan thus lost two wickets early in the morning for just 2 runs. Anwar, who had hit a fluent century the previous evening, was a pale shadow of himself today, struggling to put bat to ball. His 119 came of 174 balls with 20 hits to the fence.

That dismissal got Azhar Mahmood, not having the best of matches, to the wicket. A seven ball duck resulted, with Mahmood trying to drive one from Warne which pitched on leg and turned in, only to miss the shot completely and allow Gilchrist, having a great debut with both bat and with the gloves, to complete the stumping.

At that stage, the lead was a meager 23 runs with three wickets standing. The writing was on the wall and it was only some resistance from Wasim and Moin which stretched the lead to 74 runs.

McGrath was devastating in his first spell with 5 consecutive maidens and the prize-wicket of Saeed Anwar.

At the other end, Warne was making good use of the footmarks made by the pace bowlers and was turning the ball prodigiously, bowling around the wicket. With four men, including the wicket-keeper, around the bat, Moin was forced on the defensive, padding up to Warne and curbing his instinctive attacking play.

Wasim on the other hand was on the offensive and used his feet well against the leggie, dancing down the track and hoisting him over long on for maximum. Pakistan reached their 250 of 409 balls.

Steve immediately replaced McGrath with Fleming and gave him an attacking field, three slips and two gullies, to have a go at the captain and his deputy. Immediately after drinks, Fleming struck, dismissing Akram with an outswinger which pitched on leg and dislodged the bail on the off-stump. Pakistan at 268/8 were all but ready to have a short day at the office.

Moin followed soon after, sweeping Fleming and getting a top edge in the deep where Muller took a great catch diving full-length to give Fleming his fourth scalp of the innings.

Fleming then castled Shoaib for a five-wicket haul in the innings, finishing with nine for the match. The Pakistan innings lasted for just 21 overs on the fifth morning, and they lost their last 6 wickets adding just 58runs. Damien Fleming took 3-12 off 3.1 overs in the morning spell and was one of the leading contenders for the man of the match which eventually went to Michael Slater for his match-winning 169 runs.

Australia overhauled the Pakistan target in a mere 14.2 overs without losing a wicket and, in the process, demoralised the much-vaunted Pak attack. Blewett was particularly severe on Shoaib whom he drove to distraction with lovely with exquisite timing to the fence twice in the same over.

Slater and Blewett brought up their half-century partnership off 64 balls in 44 minutes. They were 55 for no loss at lunch, needing just another 19 to go one up in the three Test series. And they did it in style.

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