Al-anwar Newspaper English news in Australia
The three-Test series between Australia and Pakistan remains locked at 0-0 after one of the all-time escape acts by the hosts in Karachi.
Having survived more than 170 overs in the second Test to claim a draw, Pakistan will feel like winners while Australia is licking awfully familiar wounds.
Whether captain Pat Cummins could have personally done anything different to force a result is up for debate.
What isn’t, however, is that the Aussie leader is sure to come under fire anyway.
With the benefit of hindsight, others might beg to differ.
But the bottom line is that Australia had more than 170 overs to bowl Pakistan out on a day four and five pitch.
Did anyone really think that wouldn’t be enough at the time?
This was the first time in more than 20 years that Australia didn’t win having not enforced the follow-on, going 24 from 24 when making the decision until Karachi.
For further context on just how unlikely this outcome was, Pakistan is the only team in the history of five-day Test cricket to survive more than 1,000 balls in the fourth innings.
The alternative was for Australia to enforce the follow-on late on day three after Pakistan was rolled for 148 in the first innings to trail by more than 400 runs.
