Australia vs Pakistan Day 2 Highlights 3rd Test | Hobart

Australia vs Pakistan Day 2 Highlights 3rd Test | Hobart

I

II

III

IV

V

Watch cricket highlights: Australia vs Pakistan Day 2 from the 3rd Test at Hobart played on Jan 15, 2010.

Scoreline: Aus 519/8 declared Ricky Ponting 209, Clarke 166, Haddin 41

Pakistan 94/4 Farhat 38, Salman Butt 34 no

Unless you’re a hardcore Pakistan supporter it’s hard to imagine any sympathy for the situation they’ve got themselves into. And this was a thought even before they went out to bat. It all comes down to the post-tea tactics yesterday. Ponting anyhow might have got a double given his post-50 touch, but at least they’d know they’d tried. When you have bowlers repeatedly coming close to taking a wicket, re-adopting the tactics today was almost like Pakistan not having a choice but to continue with it given the ongoing partnership.

Personally I never particularly liked Salman Butt early in his career, but given the openers that have been selected over the last couple of years, he seems the most stable among them. And Farhat and he have begun to provide some semblance of an opening partnership in recent times. You’d have had to follow a team (India) for years to know the value of seeing 50/0 in a test to even begin to appreciate the importance of having a relatively settled opening combo. So sincerely hope Butt doesn’t go the Kamran way after today. But things aren’t looking great. Saw this news flash by on television a while back and looked it up on the net – Yousuf’s statements after play included:

“We are not playing for self, we are playing for country”

“If I’m 35 years old and I can get three runs, he’s 25 years old, why can’t he take the runs?.

“He is a little lazy, everybody knows.

“He’s just 25 years old and he can’t run. That is why I was just standing there.

“It was an easy three runs.

“Me and him the same in 140 overs fielding. We play for country here, not for self.

“I just stopped there, I didn’t say anything, I was just very sad with the whole thing.” – Source: news.com.au

On a happier note, glad Ponting piddled on my nagging feeling yesterday that he’d probably be out early today.

Now he can pull and do whatnot without anyone bothering him