Adelaide, January 29: Pakistan battled and battled as they have through the entire series, but let Australia get away at a critical stage once again on a hot day at the WACA, as contrasting fifties from Michael Hussey and Nathan Hauritz took them to a challenging 277.
For much of the innings control was a loose concept. Every time Pakistan struck, an Australian partnership settled in. But every time a partnership or batsman threatened to take over, Pakistan struck, so that momentum never rested decisively with either side.
The final shift, however, came Australia’s way after the 40th over as an 80-run partnership between Hussey and Hauritz propelled Australia to the kind of total Pakistan haven’t looked like chasing down at any point this summer.
Australia were 6 for 190 at that point and James Hopes had just been dismissed by the excellent Mohammad Asif. Hussey had hung around unnoticed from the 22nd over, stealthily keeping Australia afloat but never loudly enough for Pakistan to worry. Hauritz frustrated Pakistan with his spin through the Tests and now he did so with the bat, swinging four lusty sixes in the final overs for a 39-ball 53.
Hussey meanwhile had hit one boundary in his fifty, which he reached at the start of the last Powerplay. But timing is everything and as he did in Adelaide in the third ODI, he utilized the restrictions beautifully, ensuring that 60 runs came in the last six overs. Death bowling was once Pakistan’s trump card, but on this tour it has cost them heavily.
Pakistan had shaded the start after Ricky Ponting and the coin had consigned them to hard toil on the field on a day that got warmer as it went on. Much of the groundwork was laid in a fine opening spell from Asif, who immediately hit the length that makes him so dangerous, not allowing batsmen to drive or to defend back with any great ease. Shaun Marsh was troubled, teased and sent back; that Kamran Akmal took a good catch diving to his left suggested early things might be going Pakistan’s way.
Brad Haddin, promoted up the order, provided Australia with some momentum with an innings that was, like well-shampooed hair, perky and bouncy. He ran well so the rate never slowed and a boundary was never far away; some, like a straight drive were from a textbook, some, like a dancing cut, weren’t.
But just when he was looking as dangerous as the man he took over from – Shane Watson – he went. Michael Clarke was undone in a manner in which he has sent back so many batsmen – a smooth direct hit from Fawad Alam at cover. Ricky Ponting scratchily soldiered on, Pakistan giving him plenty of opportunity to pull and none of the attempts looked particularly convincing. It wasn’t to last, as Shahid Afridi got one to go across him and Akmal again, somehow, held on; now Pakistan were on top.
Cameron White had initially looked every inch a man averaging 60 in the series when he came in, a quietly violent and abrupt six back over the bowler’s head confirming what numbers were already telling us. But then as the heat picked up and Saeed Ajmal came on, he had to fight. The doosra wasn’t picked but he didn’t get out to it and there were plenty of singles to keep things moving.
Ajmal’s spell through the middle overs was crucial; only two boundaries came between overs 22 and 36, though only one wicket fell. That was White, frustrated despite having sneaked into the 40s. It should’ve been Pakistan’s innings from there, but Hussey did what he seems born to do by engineering another lower-order revival.
——-Agencies