It’s a common used phrase by commentators the world over, that you can’t win a Test match on the first day, but you can go a long way to potentially losing it, and Pakistan ensured that they didn’t achieve the latter on Day 1 of their 1st Test against Australia in Dubai.
The host nation might have bored the pants off the watching few, but they have already demonstrated that they know how to bat on these wickets, and it will be interesting to see how the likes of David Warner and the more positive Aussie batsmen fare when it’s their turn to bat on this surface…. and they will be batting last in this match as well.
I thought Mitchell Johnson was exceptional again today, especially as Pakistan’s batsmen seemed to adopt a tactic to just not play him. If they do that again on Day 2 and Australia get frustrated, it will be interesting to see how Michael Clarke handles his star bowler’s workload in these conditions.
Pakistan start Day 2 on 219/4, and in the betting they are still the outsiders, most bookies have them at around 15/8 to 2/1. The draw is 5/2, and Australia are a best price of 13/10 – both with bet365 (who have a Welcome Bonus of £200 for new customers).
The Test match is starting to shape up nicely and despite the boredom of Day 1, I am fascinated to see how the rest of this Test match pans out. Will Australia fall into the sort of traps that England have in the past in these conditions, or are they really the real deal? I do feel these next four days of Test cricket could go some way to answering this question.
