Pakistan captain Shan Masood is looking at positive aspects of MCG test
Melbourne: After their 79-run loss to Australia in the second Test, Pakistan captain Shan Masood is looking at the positives of the MCG Test and urged people to look at the ‘big picture’.
Pakistan batsmen Masood, Babar Azam and Agha Salman fought hard and showed a lot of spirit on the fourth day in Melbourne, but Australia’s fast bowlers Pat Cummins and Mitchell Starc fought hard to win the Test series with one match remaining here in Melbourne. -Sacrificed my life. Cricket Ground on Friday.
Pakistan fought till the end but still fell short as Australia won the second match convincingly to clinch the Test series.
Masood said there were ‘positive’ things to consider after his team’s 79-run defeat in the second Test at the MCG. The Pakistani captain said that the bigger picture should be considered and noted that there were many positive things to be learned from the game.
“We have to look at the bigger picture. There were a lot of positives in it. We can easily say, ‘What if we did this, what if we did that?’ It’s all part of the game and the process. There were a lot of positives in it but if you look at a team of the quality like Australia, what we did, maybe sometimes with the bowling, maybe sometimes with the bat, yesterday maybe we were in the field and took out an in-form player like Marsh, Then maybe we wouldn’t be chasing so many today.
Mistakes happen. In terms of the bigger picture, this is how we want to play Test cricket. Playing Test cricket in these conditions, fighting till the end, where a result was possible for us, is something we have to take forward as a team,” Masood said in the post-match presentation.
After reflecting on how the game played out over the course of four days, Masood praised his team for fighting till the end.
Cummins took 10 wickets in the match and took an unassailable 2-0 lead in Australia’s 79-run win.
“It’s a reflection of the four days, the game kept turning. Sometimes it would go Australia’s way, sometimes our way.
We were lucky to win the toss and had excellent bowling conditions. We were leading the batting when Abdullah and I made a good partnership, Pat Cummins came with that spell and that is why he is one of the best bowlers in the world.
In the second innings, the partnership between Steve Smith and Mitchell Marsh pushed us back again. We took 20 wickets which we haven’t taken in Australia for a while, that’s the right thing.”
“There is a lot to work on, but this is the blueprint with which we want to play Test cricket. Hopefully we will continue to do so. They are brutal, you want to convert fifties into centuries. That’s what we have to do as a batting unit.” “They have some world-class bowlers, if you look at them carefully you will not have enough runs on the board,” he said.
He criticized the batsmen’s failure to convert excellent starts and fifties into centuries, saying that this was the model he wanted the team to follow.
“This is the WTC, every Test match matters. Very happy with the way we played the game, it’s just about the finishing touch and winning the important moments as the Australians did in this game. The groundsmen did a wonderful job, one of the better Test pitches we have played on, something for everyone,” the Pakistan captains said. Very happy that we got a chance to play such an exciting Test match.”
Pat Cummins leads Australia to a 79-run win in the Boxing Day Test at the MCG. The host team has taken an unassailable 2-0 lead in the series against Pakistan. Cummins finished the match with 10 wickets in Australia’s 79-run victory, while Starc returned with 4/55 and both fast bowlers took the lead to give the hosts their second consecutive win.
The third and last match of the series will be played at the Sydney Cricket Ground from January 3.
