Next day come-backs

There is something about next morning come backs in Test Matches that Pakistan has never been able to deal with. I am sure there are many examples but the one most vivid that comes to my mind is the Test series in Australia under Wasim Akram. In the first test Pakistan had scored 300+ runs and Wasim/Shoaib had a brief go at Aussie openers just before the close of play where I am sure the openers were seeing stars in broad daylight. Next morning however everything was completely different. There was no threat at all from the Pakistani bowlers who were thrashed to all corners of the park, with Mushtaq Ahmad really feeling the heat. Aussies have been specially masterful of next morning comebacks. The infamous Hobart test [ :'( ] is another example when the fighting pair of Justin Langer and Adam Gilchrist came out the next morning and overcame the daunting task of not only saving the match but in fact scoring the 370 odd runs required to win the test match! This was truly heart-breaking/demoralizing for the Pakistani team.

Recently on the Indian tour of winter 2005, we saw an awful display of morning play in the 2nd test where Younus Khan was absurdly stumped off the first ball of the day, inspite of a comfortable position in the game the night before.

Similarly in the current tour of West Indies, the batsmen lost all their sense in their sleep over and lost 10 wickets for just 118 runs! No wonder all the mughal rules were known to prefer sleeping on hard flat wooden beds instead of soft comfortable bunks we know today.

The only job-well-done I can remember on the next moring took place in the 1st on the India tour where Kamran Akmal and AbdurRazzaq defied all (heaviest of) odds to draw the test match.