‘If we took a couple of catches it might be a different scenario’ – Pat Cummins rues missed chances. Captain hails Swepson despite the debutant legspinner going wicketless and conceding 156 in the fourth innings.
For the second time in recent memory, Australia was forced to rue wasted opportunities on the fifth day of a Test that they had dominated but were unable to win and the captain Pat Cummins rues missed chances.
From the moment Pakistan’s first innings was blasted away in 53 overs, including a six-wicket session on the third day, to their surviving 171.4 overs in one of the greatest match-saving efforts in Test history, it was difficult to make sense of how the Karachi Test unfolded.
The most clear-cut chances were Steven Smith’s drop of Abdullah Shafique on the fourth afternoon, which would have left Pakistan 38 for 3 against a still reasonably hard ball that was starting to reverse, and Usman Khawaja’s spill of Mohammad Rizwan late in the game, which would have left 18 balls for a last-ditch attempt at the remaining two wickets.
Mitchell Swepson, who was competing for the first time, created a flurry of near-misses in the afternoon session on the last day. Between the 127th and 131st overs, an edge took Smith’s fingertips at slip, Travis Head was unable to hold one off the face of the bat at silly point, and Marnus Labuschagne wasn’t quite at his best at silly point.
It continued a trend from Australia’s previous two Tests at the SCG, against India and England, in which lost catches proved costly on the final day, with the opposition surviving each times. If the Ashes at Headingley and India’s historic chase at the Gabba are included, this is the fifth fourth-innings scenario since 2019 in which Australia was favoured to win yet unable to do so.
“I think the positive thing is that we’ve generated more than ten opportunities each time,” said captain Pat Cummins. “It’s arguably the most disappointing part about this game.” It might be a different story if we got a couple of those catches.
“I walked off the field at the end of the day’s play without feeling there was something I hadn’t tried, or there wasn’t a plan we hadn’t given a really good chance at. In foreign conditions we are showing that we are able to adapt and play well over here. But of course, getting so close, [being] so far ahead of the game, and not coming away with the result can feel like it’s a missed opportunity.”
Swepson concluded the second innings with statistics of 0 for 156 from 53.4 overs because to a late Khawaja drop at short cover, but Cummins was pleased with his debut but Pat Cummins rues missed chances in the match. Nathan Lyon, who had struck in his first over of the second innings, threatened to steal the game late on, taking three wickets early in the final hour as Australia’s first frontline spin tandem since 2018 combined for 108 overs.
“Reverse-swing bowling can have a really big factor on the game, especially if you get a breakthrough, get a new batter in and they’ve got to start against a reversing ball things can move really quickly,” he said. “If that doesn’t happen, reverse-swing is still useful but it’s not all it’s cracked up to be.”
During the match, Cummins made numerous key tactical decisions, including as extending Australia’s first innings into the third morning and then not enforcing the follow-on with a 408-run lead, however, Pat Cummins rues missed chances which went by during the match. Everything seemed to be falling into place when they had Pakistan 21 for 2 the second time around, but it took them nearly 87 overs to capture their third wicket before being thwarted again when Babar Azam and Rizwan remained together for 41 runs.
“Babar, Rizwan, Shafique, thought they all batted fantastically the last two days. We knew the wicket wasn’t playing too many tricks but they batted superbly and made it really hard to get that breakthrough and when we did the next guy stuck at it as well. “The good thing is it’s nil-all, we didn’t lose anything. Coming over here in these conditions, at the start of the series if you’d said it was going to be nil-all after two games you’d probably take that.”
In the post match presser Pat Cummins rues missed chances that led to the outcome that was not wished by the team.