Pakistan swings into dominant position as Katich's innings stands out in gloom

Great bowling spells by Ameer, Asif and Umar Gul, restircted Australia to 228/9 on the opening day of the 1st MCC Test Championship between Australia and Pakistan, played at Lords.

A seaming-friendly conditions helped Pakistan bowlers to swing at will at this very neutral ground and they would not have asked for more. All these bowlers have been bowling for their respective county cricket and this would have helped them to understand the conditions more. It was also evident the way Danish Kaneria was able to spin the bowl, as he was been bowling in English conditions for sometime.

Australians had to clue, save for Clarke, Katich and later Hussey. katich scored 80, having faced 138 balls with 9 fours. He was very comfortable at the crease till a peach of a delivery from Aameer did him in. The very fact that Katich and Clarke had built on a partnership of 120 runs for the 3rd wicket, shows the agressive indent these batsman had at the crease. At this stage they were cruising along and a  scroe of 400 was very much written on the cards. But from a sound position of 171/2, Australia collapsed to 229/9. Well, at the same time, Australia should consider itself unlucky with the lbw shout against Clarke and Smith.

I had mentioned in my previous column on Aussies that they are losing their sheen in ODIs. Are they losing the dominance in overall cricket like W.Indies? Watson is a great allrounder, no doubt, but asking to open the batting in ODIs, T20 and test match, is asking too much from this young lad. With the ball swinging and with his restricted batting technique, he will surely let you down as an opening batsman. That is the main reason that the idea of having an opener opening the test matches in all other countries are still continuing.Ponting has been gambling this for quite sometime and it has paved off for the simple reason that they were playing mostly at home and Watson knows the conditions well.

Again, as mentioned in my previous column, Aussies does not have its bench strength, and Paine, must have found that Internatinal cricket is very different from the 1st class cricket played at home. He must have faced about 40 odd deliveries and he was all at sea, till a peach of delivery removed him.

It was a long tail starting from Paine and Pakistan did not have any trouble in removing them.

As always, Hussey has been battling lonely and he knows how to smother swing and spin. He has done a great job and I wouldnt be surprised if the Hussey and Bollinger what Hussey and McGrath did for the last wicket about 3 years ago.

Knowing Australia, I still feel the fans of Australian cricket need to be too worried about the current situation and they are known for bouncing back into the test - Remember the famous Sydney Test against Pakistan earlier this year!!