*Official* Australia in Pakistan 2022

[Burgey]

Sarfraz used to be good. Never was Rizwan though. Myself, np10 and Cribb have been on the Rizwan train even when Sarfraz was serviceable. Get in line lads.

Can you please get on the "adequate covers and drainage train" asap, for the benefit of all of us who want to watch test matches there in future.

 

[Fuller Pilch]

Sarfaraz is not what I'd call quality.

Chandimal and Kusal Mendis too I guess, though obviously the former's performances have fallen off a cliff.

Which is why I put the question marks in. I think his overly emotional captaincy affected his keeping and Rizwan is better.

They were decent bats, but pretty iffy keeping. Also, off topic but what is Kusal Perera doing? How is a swashbuckling bloke who played arguably the greatest test innings of all time not in the SL T20 and test teams?

 

[Aritro]

Brad Haddin: Australia should knock off some quick runs and put the Pakistan batting under pressure, because their batting is "not that strong"

 

[Daemon]

5-fer for the old man. Well done.

 

[Xix2565]

Nauman being so inspirational for all old, balding men everywhere.

 

[OverratedSanity]

Pant's definitely played better and more defining innings but I wouldn't call him "completely superior." Rizwan made a Clutch 115* vs an SA attack of rabada, nortje, maharaj and linde on a deck with plenty of assistance to the bowlers and took Pak from a questionable spot to a dominate position, made 72 and 61(200) to nearly pull out a back against the wall draw against an nz attack of jamieson-southee-boult-wagner when jamieson was in beast mode in NZ, made 72 out of 236 mostly batting with the tail on an absolute minefield in england vs an attack of broad-jimmy-woakes, and made a 4th innings 95 against Cumm-starc-haze in Australia when starc was at the peak of his powers in the 2019 home summer and haze was just coming into his recent peak.

All of this in a pretty short career, with clutch runs all over the world, and an average of 42+ In Aus, NZ, and ENG. Short career, and no moments as defining as pant's heroics at the back end of the last border gavaskar trophy, but he's still been ****ing good.

Yup he's outstanding. Pant gets more eyeballs understandably because his game pops more (whether he's reverse lapping anderson over the slips or jumping out trying to smash rabada out of the ground and embarassing himself), but Rizwan's no less effective with the bat overall. And a better keeper, though Pant's improved massively on that front in the last 18 months.

 

[honestbharani]

I do think Rizwan > Pant but anyone claiming one is far better than the other has the obvious "its only cricket in Aussie summer" syndrome IMO. Anyone who has seen both play knows its close as far as tests go. Rizwan still clearly better but Pant is narrowing the gap all the time.

Of course, when we consider all formats, Rizwan is far better as I dont think Pant is any good in LO cricket at this point.

 

[Xix2565]

Well that was quick. Can Pakistan take the initiative this time round?

 

[morgieb]

Pretty crap to not get a first innings lead from 4/400-odd. Plausibly enough time for Pakistan to force victory?

 

[OverratedSanity]

Pretty crap to not get a first innings lead from 4/400-odd. Plausibly enough time for Pakistan to force victory?

Lmao what.

 

[Spark]

Pretty crap to not get a first innings lead from 4/400-odd. Plausibly enough time for Pakistan to force victory?

come on man

 

[RossTaylorsBox]

morgie.txt

 

[morgieb]

Lmao what.

I mean it’s still really, really unlikely. But if they force the initiative and get 40+ overs at Australia…..you never know.

 

[RossTaylorsBox]

I would be calling the corruption unit post haste

 

[morgieb]

Like despite the collapse I still think if something weird was going to happen it would be in Australia’s favour. But it hasn’t been smart cricket from Australia in the last day.

 

[trundler]

Would've been nice if this had happened yesterday

 

[OverratedSanity]

I mean it’s still really, really unlikely. But if they force the initiative and get 40+ overs at Australia…..you never know.

There's only one team that can win from here and it's Australia, and even that'll take a vintage lol pakistan collapse.

 

[trundler]

Get 200 in 40 overs, send them in and blow them away. Gotta be prepared to lose to win.

 

[Spark]

yeah if this game gets near a result it'll be like that uae game involving england seven or eight years back when england would have won from nowhere had the light held

 

[Aritro]

Shafique averages 68 in his five first class matches. Dunno what the pitches were like, but that's an impressive start.