Thursday, July 15, 2010

Australia vs Pakistan (1st Test, Lords) Summary as of Now


Introduction

Pakistan vs Australia (Pak vs Aus) 1st test live cricket score and streaming Lords 2010 Ten Sports owns the telecasting rights for all the matches under PCB. So, Australia Vs Pakistan match in England is broadcasted by Tensports and other channels throughout the world.

Pakistan Cricket Board is hosting Australia for two Test matches in England. After the completion of 2 T20s, the test series starts July 13, Tuesday. Australia was defeated in both the T20s played earlier this month. Pakistan team seems to have gain some momentum from the victories but remember that T20 and test are adverse to each other. And the team is first time captained by Shahid Afridi in the Tests.

1st Day Highlights:

A SIX-wicket collapse that began on the last ball before tea has severely undermined Australia's solid start to its Test series against Pakistan in London.

The first day of the match, played at Lord's because of the volatile security situation in Pakistan, looked to be firmly in Australia's control when, after being sent in under overcast conditions, it was set to go to the second break at a formidable 2-171, with Simon Katich and Michael Clarke building on their century partnership.

The situation changed markedly when canny Pakistan paceman Mohammad Asif claimed three wickets in seven deliveries - Clarke (47), Katich (80) and Marcus North (zero) - to spark the lower-order collapse.

Australia could well have been bowled out within the shortened first day had bad light not stopped play after 70 overs. The suspension allowed it to go to stumps at 9-229, with Mike Hussey unbeaten on 39 and Doug Bollinger yet to score.

The extent of Pakistan's success on the day was reflected in six of the nine completed Australian partnerships failing to reach double figures.

Shane Watson's first Test appearance at the ground began poorly when he departed 20 minutes in when an Aamer delivery he shouldered arms to crept over his pads onto his stumps.

Any optimism Australian captain Ricky Ponting might have felt about overhauling Brian Lara to become the No.2 run-scorer in Test history, which he achieved in the 17th over, evaporated the very next ball when, on 26, he firmly turned Aamer off his pads and was superbly snared at short-leg by 20-year-old debutant Umar Amin.

Clarke, in his first innings as Australia's permanent No.4 batsman, was in sparkling form for most of his innings, not because of his stroke-play and smart footwork but also because of his judgement to leave dangerous deliveries that only just evaded his stumps.

The next time the vice-captain, who briskly moved to 34, looked fallible was when Aamer was brought back into the attack for his third spell. In the left-armer's first two overs back, Clarke three times played and missed attempting to drive outside off-stump.

As Clarke's fluency disappeared, Katich's arrived for the first time in his innings - in a big way. At one stage both batsmen were on 44, yet within about half an hour Katich had raced to 70 with Clarke scoring an additional run.

The opener was, admittedly, helped by some extremely loose bowling by Afridi, who deservedly leaked 25 runs from his three overs. Katich's surging strike rate allowed him and Clarke to bring up their 100-run partnership in just 95 minutes.

Australia looked set to go to tea firmly in the ascendancy but on the last ball before the break Clarke was harshly adjudged leg-before to Asif for 47. It was the start of the superb three-wicket stint by the relentless swing bowler that pulled Australia back from 2-171 to 5-174.

In his first over after the tea break Asif trumped Katich with a ball that moved away in line with the famous Lord's slope and caught his outside edge. The right-armer's next ball was a superb full inswinger that trapped left-hander Marcus North directly in front but was not appealed, while the next ball also looked to be a strong leg-before shout. It was inconsequential because Asif then immediately fired a full delivery through North's bat and pad to claim the left-hander for a duck.

Australia's debutants were the next two batsmen to go. Paine departed for seven from 46 balls when he was caught behind off Umar Gul, albeit probably from the best delivery of the day's play, and then an over later Smith was trapped in front by a top-spinner from fellow leggie Danish Kaneria. The heat-camera replay suggested an inside edge onto pad but it was so slight that Rudi Koertzen could be excused for the decision.

Having Mitchell Johnson batting at No.9 would ordinarily seem to be a sign of batting depth, although the manner of his departure yesterday for three - bowled by Kaneria attempting a reckless heave over mid-wicket - made a mockery of suggestions that began a year or so ago that he was on the path to becoming an all-rounder.

No.10 batsman Hilfenhaus too fell to a cracking delivery, this time from Aamer, but Bollinger managed to survive the 10 deliveries he faced late in the day.

Ben Hilfenaus: The Player of the Day (2nd Day)

Ben Hilfenhaus made two timely breakthroughs to keep Australia firmly in the contest on the second day at Lord's, as Pakistan moved along to 49 for 2 by lunch, having taken 6.5 overs to claim Australia's final first-innings wicket and bowl them out for 253. Mike Hussey, who resumed on 39 not out overnight, duly brought up a battling half-century before his partner, Doug Bollinger, was yorked for 4 by Mohammad Aamer to bring to an end a valuable 31-run stand.

It was a sedate session, certainly when compared to the fearsome new-ball spell that Pakistan's openers, Aamer and Mohammad Asif, had produced on the first day, but with plenty cloud cover overhead and a hint of assistance from the surface, Australia's bowlers proved to be a handful even while struggling to locate the correct line and length for the conditions.

Hilfenhaus was the pick of the bowlers by a distance, as he attacked the stumps of the left-handers with a full inswinging length, while keeping the right-handed debutant Azhar Ali under the cosh in a cautious maiden innings. Having started the morning from the Pavilion End, Hilfenhaus switched ends after two overs and made an instant impact as he nipped an off-stump delivery up the slope, for the wicketkeeper Tim Paine to collect the first catch of his Test career.

That brought Azhar to the crease, who was chosen in the squad after racking up 445 runs in ten innings in the recent Quaid-e-Azam trophy, and thrust into his Test debut in place of the veteran Shoaib Malik. He got off the mark with a second-ball single through the covers, and picked off two fours behind square on the off and leg side as he pursued a safety-first approach in his maiden innings. But with five minutes to go until lunch, Hilfenhaus beat him with some extra lift outside off, and Paine was on hand to claim his second victim.

Butt, meanwhile, moved along to a composed 26 not out by the break, as he guarded his off stump with diligent strides down the pitch while cashing in on regular width from the Australian bowlers by crashing five fours square of the wicket, one off the hips and four through the covers. With another debutant, Umar Amin, yet to face a ball by the interval, his continued presence could prove critical to Pakistan's post-lunch fortunes.

3rd Day: Pakistan Fight Hard in World Record Chase:

Teams facing the prospect of a world-record run-chase generally find themselves praying for rain at some stage of the proceedings, but Pakistan have never been the most conventional of outfits. When play resumes for Friday's fourth day, every batsman in the "home" dressing room will be praying for skies as cloudless as those that they might expect in Karachi at this time of year, as they set their sights on a marathon target of 440 to win the first Test against Australia.

It is an outlandish notion, especially given that the same 11 cricketers crumbled to 148 all out in Pakistan's first innings, but such is the effect that the weather has on Lord's. When the atmosphere is heavy, the ball does handstands, but when the sun breaks through, the pitch becomes as flat as Faisalabad - as Salman Butt and the debutant Azhar Ali demonstrated in taking Pakistan's score to a confident 114 for 1 in 37 overs at the close of the third day.

The only breakthrough came when Imran Farhat suffered a rush of blood against Steven Smith, and wiped a horrid cross-batted mow to Shane Watson at midwicket to give the young legspinner his maiden Test wicket. Butt on the other hand chose his shots far more responsibly, to push confidently along to an unbeaten 58 - his second half-century of the match. Alongside him, the 25-year-old Azhar displayed a calm assurance in a tense scenario, even though Ben Hilfenhaus might well have capped a personally memorable day by pinning him lbw for 28 from the very last ball of the day.

And so the match boiled down to a simple equation. Pakistan need a further 326 runs for victory, Australia need nine more wickets in six sessions. It was a scenario reminiscent, in fact, of Australia's last visit to Lord's in 2009, when England assumed the match was in the bag as the Aussies chased a massive 522 in the fourth innings, only for Michael Clarke and Brad Haddin to run them uncomfortably close as they finished on 406. It took a never-say-die intervention from Andrew Flintoff to overcome the conditions (and the opponents) that day. Australia won't want history to have to repeat itself.

This time around, the third morning dawned as both of the first two had done, with dank skies overhead and all sorts of opportunities for Pakistan's seamers to capitalise on their late burst of four wickets in 10.1 overs on the previous evening. The fact that they were thwarted was almost entirely thanks to the determination of Australia's opener, Simon Katich, who batted 174 balls for an invaluable 83 - a performance that, in addition to his first-innings 80, looked sure to have him nailed down for the Man of the Match award.

But then, midway through the afternoon session, with Australia's innings ebbing away on 208 for 8, the heavens cleared and the context of the contest was transformed. Each of Australia's three remaining batsmen - the debutant wicketkeeper Tim Paine, and Nos. 10 and 11, Hilfenhaus and Doug Bollinger - recorded their Test-best scores as Pakistan's seamers found that the ball was now refusing to budge an inch from the straight and narrow.

Hilfenhaus's previous best had been an insubstantial 20, but he bettered that in boundaries alone, as he took the long handle to a conveyor belt of dispirited bowlers, not least Mohammad Asif, who had been so deadly under the cloud cover, but now suffered the indignity of being cracked over the covers for a nose-rubbing six.

For Paine, the contrast between first innings and second could scarcely have been more stark. On Tuesday he had laboured to 7 from 46 balls as Asif and Mohammad Aamer kept him under the cosh. Now he found himself cruising to 47 from 85, in a ninth-wicket stand of 74. His one moment of discomfort came on 4, when Umar Gul bent his back to nip a lifter into his nether regions, but it was quite some surprise when he played around a full-length delivery from Afridi to be bowled on the brink of his maiden half-century.

After picking up the solitary wicket of the nightwatchman, Mitchell Johnson, in the morning session, Pakistan had resumed after lunch with one of their typically intermittent bursts of inspiration, when Gul and Asif struck within three balls of one another to remove both not-out batsmen, Katich and Marcus North (20) without addition to the score. When Smith fell lbw to the second ball of Danish Kaneria's new spell, three key wickets had fallen for 20, and Australia's advantage - 313, with two wickets standing - didn't look quite so insuperable.

But then the sun peeked through the clouds for the first time in eight sessions, and Australia's tail wagged to such violent effect that the end-of-innings scorecard looked like an administrative error, with nine men reaching double figures, but none other than Ricky Ponting and Michael Hussey making ducks. It was a fact that highlighted how much the game had changed. A contest that had started with a clatter of wickets looked set to be decided amid a deluge of runs. Australia remain overwhelming favourites, but if the clouds stay away, Pakistan could yet make them toil.

4th Day: Marcus North spins Australia to Massive Win, Still not the Player of the Match

Marcus North claimed the remarkable figures of 6 for 55 to join Shane Watson on the brand-new neutral honors board at Lord's, while Steven Smith chipped in with three key scalps in his first spell in Test cricket, as Pakistan hurtled to defeat by 150 runs on the fourth afternoon of the first Test against Australia.

Set an improbable 440 for victory, Pakistan began their chase boldly through the efforts of Salman Butt, who made a fluent 92 in a 102-run stand for the second wicket with the debutant Azhar Ali, and at 152 for 1 with more than five sessions of the match remaining, there was an outside chance of a miracle taking place. But North's introduction transformed the contest shortly before lunch.

With his eyes lighting up as North floated his first delivery gently towards his pads, Butt toppled out of his crease to be stumped down the leg-side by Tim Paine, before Umar Akmal jabbed a lifter to slip on the stroke of lunch. With wickets continuing to slip away thereafter, the last vestige of Pakistani hope vanished when the captain Shahid Afridi slapped his fourth delivery down the throat of deep midwicket for 2 - a shot which doubtless contributed to his post-match declaration that next week's Headingley Test would be his last.

Bowling unchanged from the Nursery End for 18 overs straight, North's seemingly innocuous offspinners proved too tempting for an impetuous Pakistan line-up, who found a succession of unworthy ways to fling their wickets away. Umar Amin was impressively snaffled by the Man of the Match, Simon Katich at short leg, but in the same over, Afridi's hoick towards the Grandstand boundary was brainless in the extreme, as Mike Hussey steadied himself well to pouch a skier just inside the rope.

At 229 for 6, there was little hope of Pakistan coming back into the contest, let alone dig in for the draw, although Kamran Akmal and Mohammad Aamer defied their fading expectations in a 54-run stand for the seventh wicket than spanned 19 overs. But when Ricky Ponting freed up the leg-side boundary to tempt Akmal into a mow, the effect was instantaneous. Smith slipped in a quicker ball to peg back his middle stump, as the last four wickets tumbled for six runs in 26 deliveries.

Ponting by now had the new ball at his disposal, but he saw no need to change the pattern of the session, especially with bright sunshine overhead and little prospect of swing. It took five more deliveries for Aamer to pick out Hussey at deep midwicket with a slog-sweep - only moments after the fielder had been waved into position - before Smith claimed a third courtesy of Umar Gul, who wafted a leading edge to Ponting at short cover. One over later, the deed was done, as Danish Kaneria patted a tame drive to Ponting once again, to leave North in possession of the best figures ever by an Australian spinner at Lord's.

The last rites came in a rush, but Pakistan had made Australia work hard for much of the day's play. After a confident start to a mountainous run-chase on Thursday evening, they had resumed on 114 for 1, still requiring an improbable 326 to make history and end a run of 12 consecutive defeats at the hands of the Aussies. But the overnight pair of Butt and Azhar showed no signs of anxiety as they racked up 48 runs in the first ten overs of the day under moderately overcast skies that always promised to clear up as the day progressed.

Butt, who resumed on 58 not out, was once again the main source of Pakistani optimism, as he cashed in on a wayward first spell from Mitchell Johnson to slash four fours over the covers in the space of 10 deliveries, before angling the first ball of Watson's spell through third man for another boundary. Following on from his first-innings 63, the innings briefly carried his Test average against Australia past the 50 mark.

But slowly as first, and then with increasing confidence, Australia made their weight of runs count on a brittle Pakistani line-up. Though Azhar continued the composed performance he had begun the previous evening, he was always on the defensive against Ben Hilfenhaus, against whom he squirted consecutive boundaries through the gully before, on 42, snicking a perfect outswinger to Paine behind the stumps.

Hilfenhaus's rhythm was disrupted one over later when he dived awkwardly at third man and jarred his left shoulder on the turf, but with the weather now brightening up immeasurably, his job for the day was as good as done. Into the attack came North, and out of his crease toppled Butt, whose quest to become the first centurion in a neutral Test at Lord's for 98 years ended in an agonising fashion.

It was the opening that Australia needed. Ponting's persistence with North suited the new man, Umar Akmal, just fine, as he climbed onto the offensive in his typically uninhibited manner, smacking a six and a four back over the bowler's head in consecutive overs to move to 22 from 30 deliveries. But the lure of easy runs came at a price, as Umar and his middle-order team-mates would soon discover to their cost.

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