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Going to be interesting who Aust plump for opener wise after this match. With Uzzie, Labs and Smudge slow poking their way in the top order....Head and Marsh are going to be under serious pump to get Aust to 200 before the 2nd new  ball is taken. Head not delivering, but Marsh is definitely delivering.....imagine if it was Mitch of old.?

 

That last wicket partnership from Pakistan on Day 1 which took the score from 9-227 to 313 looks like it will be the decisive passage of play in this match. The Australian bowlers lost the plot for an hour and continued to bowl short stuff to the tail which was dispatched for boundaries by Jamal.
Jamal then demonstrated how to bowl to the tail (full and at the stumps) and ended up with 6 wickets.
A lead of 200 should be enough to give Pakistan the victory. The pitch is already playing tricks.
I reckon Warner will try and go out all guns blazing in his last test innings.

Pakistan doing their very best to keep Aust in the game. 200 lead you say mikeh should do it.? Hazlewood probably bowled one of the most successful penultimate overs in a days  play for ages. Aust hasn't got much in the shed after Carey.....so Rizwan and Jamal will be looking to get that lead over a 150 minimum.....wonder if Aust fast boys will bowl short again???

Is it a crap pitch or simply crap batting techniques for where this game is right now? 

Couldn't understand the Pakistan tactics today. 130 isn't much but to have any hope they needed early wickets. Yet their top wicket taker wasn't bought on to bowl until the 20th over when the game was virtually all over. Made no sense. It almost seemed like they were treating it as a Warner benefit match. They have had some really good patches of play in this series and have competed with the Australians in the main. The scoreline is still 3-0 though because they have on occasions had complete meltdowns with bat, ball and especially in the field. The triple wicket maiden by Hazlewood was an example of that.  They have also been too friendly towards the Australians, almost deferential and they need a bit of Kohli type "mongrel" if they want to succeed against the top level teams.

As for the home team , they continue to chalk up the achievements. Whatever you think of Warner as an individual, you cannot argue with a test average of 45 as an opener with a strike rate of 70. That puts him up there with the best Australian openers particularly in home conditions

The players these days are torn between the T20 friendships and the polar opposite Test cricket rivalries
Most of them are good mates nowadays so the old mongrel bit is diluted lots
well the new era is coming fast - it will be interesting to see who gets the locker up top , I'm hedging it'll be a left fielder 
 

Entertaining Test Series with a predictable result.
Pakistan will forever rue those dropped catches which ended up being in double figures in the end can you believe.
They certainly have unearthed some promising young cricketers headed by Aamir Jamal who was superb with the ball in his debut series and more than capable with the bat.
The end of his Test Match career for Warner who despite some interesting times overall had a very good Test career with 8700 odd runs at 44.60 as an opener but very much more reliable at home than away were he averaged 30!
Interesting now to see who Dumb & Dumber aka Bailey & McDonald select as his replacement out of Green, Bancroft & Renshaw who would all be decent choices but please dont pick Harris who imho is the worst batsman out of the 4 incumbents and by far and away the worst fielder of that quartet........

Warner got the send-off he coveted,  Marsh continued on with his Ashes form, with 3 consistent performances v Pakistan, long may that continue. The R&P show keep racking up series wins, and are now back to number 1 on the test arena....whilst not a fan of Bailey, he is definitely enjoying all the success that comes with the R&P show.....bit harsh with the Dumb and Dumber retort there BH.....compared to the win / loss ratio of the previous coach and Chairman of Selectors.....Dumb and Dumber are looking Mensa material.

Some talk Smith is interested in the opener's vacancy.....if true, extremely shortsighted, but very much the left field selection Southerner mentioned may happen....but hey it might get Green into his preferred number 4 spot in the batting order......all will be revealed soon enough I guess.