Pat Cummins reflects on drawn Test: The Australian captain highlighted the positives from an exhilarating Test match at the National Stadium.
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Australia Test captain Pat Cummins has admitted that he’s “proud of his boys” for being ahead of Pakistan throughout the recently concluded second Test match in Karachi.
Cummins, who had won the toss and chose to bat on Day 1, witnessed his team batting for a colossal 189 overs to score 556/9 dec. The gigantic effort was followed by Cummins and other Australian bowlers joining hands to dismiss the opposition for 148 in 53 overs in the first innings.
“For an Australian team to bat over two days at the start of a Test match, I don’t think we’ve done that for a long time. Lots of positives from this match and so far in the series. The way we batted was fantastic, the way we hunted and took those wickets on Day 3 with reverse swing, that was brilliant as well,” Cummins told PTV during the post-match presentation ceremony at the National Stadium.
Pat Cummins reflects on drawn Test vs Pakistan on Karachi
Had it not been for Pakistan’s unprecedented batting attempt on the last two days of the match, Australia would’ve easily won the match after setting a 506-run target. However, Pakistan captain Babar Azam (196), vice-captain Mohammad Rizwan (104*) and opening batter Abdullah Shafique (96) batting for a combined total of 907 deliveries put on display an exhilarating draw.
Cummins didn’t shy away from admitting that 172 overs across (almost) six sessions were “enough” to pick 10 wickets. However, Australian vice-captain Steven Smith (Shafique), batters Travis Head and Marnus Labuschagne (Azam) and opener Usman Khawaja (Rizwan) dropping catches in the second innings denied a victory to their team.
“I think we had enough overs, it was a pretty good wicket even on Day 4 and Day 5. We created a few chances, but we failed to grab them,” Cummins mentioned.
While Australia’s new-ball pair of Starc and Cummins bowled 21 and 26 overs respectively on Day 4 and 5, spin-duo of Mitchell Swepson and Nathan Lyon worked extremely hard to bowl 53.4 and 55 overs respectively in the second innings. Not being able to pick a wicket in the second innings, “fantastic” debutant Swepson received support from Cummins.
“Mitch [Mitchell] Swepson was fantastic on debut. His figures don’t do justice to the way he bowled. Nathan [Lyon] was impressive towards the end, as he always does on Day 5,” Cummins said.
Two drawn Test matches in a row call for a perfect build-up for the third Test to be played between March 21-25 in Lahore.
