Pakistan's pursuit of history culminates in another heartbreak
One thing that lasts longer than Australian heartbreak is Pakistani belief. And day four captured that perfectly
"Pakistan! ZINDABAD!!!"
The chant goes up, loud and proud, in the Shane Warne Stand, where a group of Pakistan fans have congregated. It's a relatively small crowd - fewer than 20,000 come through the turnstiles all day - but here in this little corner, the flags you see do not bear the Blue Ensign, but the green and white of the star and crescent.
Asif leads the chants, his three-year-old son clinging to his leg. His father, Asif says, was at the
SCG in 1995 when Pakistan last beat Australia in a Test match in this country, and while he won't have the chance to be in Sydney next week, this might just be his - and Pakistan's - moment.
It's early evening, shortly after the tea break, and it's not the most optimistic time to have this chat. Josh Hazlewood has just bowled what appears to be a match-turning spell, sending down 24 successive dots before rattling Babar's off stump. Saud Shakeel fell to Mitchell Starc shortly after, and it's suddenly all down to Mohammad Rizwan and Salman Ali Agha, with 155 runs standing between them and the summit.
But Asif hopes. Hope is the last thing you lose. "Pakistan!," he yells again. "ZINDABAD!!!," they cry back.
It's impossible to describe what a historic Test match smells like, but anyone who has woken up on that decisive morning will know. It's that final morning in Karachi in March 2022, that day in Brisbane in
2021 or
2016. As the train pulls up at Jolimont Station, the walk across the bridge and through Yarra Park is sensory overload. The MCG, visible in all its glory, may just be about to see another strand of history woven through it. There are few more intoxicating feelings than a simmering Test match that has come to a boil.
Pakistan already have regrets because Australia are 241 ahead, perhaps too far in front already. That, certainly, was Mitchell Marsh's view, whose 96 put them in that imperious position, after he was put down by Abdullah Shafique in a slip cordon he didn't belong in 76 runs earlier. But Pakistan believe they have found a way to survive, in the cricketing wasteland that Australia is to visiting sides, Pakistan have stayed in the bunker just long enough; willing to wound, and yet, until now, afraid to strike.
Pakistan do strike in the morning, but perhaps not quite soon enough. The final few partnerships added 22, 28, 12, and 13. Shaheen Afridi is the first to strike, drawing an edge from Mitchell Starc. This time, the man who should have been there all along dives low to take an excellent catch. Babar has given Pakistan the breakthrough. How, you feel, they'll need him today.
Meanwhile, Shahid Afridi has rocked up to the MCG, declaring he believes the target is chaseable. He can't know what that target is, because Australia are still batting, but it would be unlike Shahid to consider that. He is flanked by Pakistan squash legend Jahangir Khan, who knows a thing or two about
winning streaks.
Shan Masood and Babar are out there together. Six weeks ago, they were both in Lahore on a very different kind of day. Babar had just been told he was being done away with as white-ball captain and could see where he wasn't wanted, resigning from the Test captaincy, too. Masood was there to be anointed his successor, and while the pair have never exactly been best of friends, what they're doing right now is too important to let anything as trivial as that get in their way.
Imam-ul-Haq looked like a dead man walking from the moment he stepped out, but it was Shafique who fell first, perhaps fittingly, by edging to the slips. It was a sharp catch at third slip, but, unlike Pakistan, Australia have their cordon worked out to a tee, and Usman Khawaja did not err. Pat Cummins worked Imam over before trapping him in front shortly after.
One thing that lasts longer than Australian heartbreak is Pakistani belief. And day four captured that perfectly
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Pakistan lost the match and it was simply due to carelessness and avoidable mistakes. Abdullah Shafique missed an easy chance when the bowlers were swinging the ball and getting edges but the worst mistake was that the batsmen needed to score and they failed. It was a heartbreaking display and Pakistan simply choked. The team that held their nerves won.
