With Australia on the ropes in the Sydney Test, irrepressible Pakistan spin bowler Danish Kaneria yesterday mocked the home team's batsmen by asking them to study videos of his bowling.
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With Australia on the ropes in the Sydney Test, irrepressible Pakistan spin bowler Danish Kaneria yesterday mocked the home team's batsmen by asking them to study videos of his bowling.
Promising to "Do bang bang" when play resumes this morning with Ricky Ponting's beleaguered team only 80 runs ahead and two wickets in hand, Kaneria said: "We should play our natural game and, Inshallah, God will help us out.
"Australians always play cricket and positive cricket. If we get them out as soon as possible, which is very good for us, no matter if we have to chase 120 u2026 we have a whole day. I am, and our team, is very confident of our batting line-up, and Inshallah, we will come and play hard cricket."
Kaneria, who took 4 for 117 yesterday to reduce Australia to 286 for eight, before limping off with a leg injury, suggested that Australia should go back to the drawing board before the third and final Test at Hobart.
"They have a few more days to look at my videos," Kaneria said. "Let's see what they do, but maybe I will do something different, too. The most pleasure was getting Mitchell Johnson with the wrong'un.
"I made a plan... it was my time."
But for three spilled catches by wicket-keeper Kamran Akmal off Kaneria, which enabled Michael Hussey to battle through to an unbeaten 80 at the end of the day and a missed run out chance, Australia's plight would have been worse.
But the flambuoyant Kaneria accepted it stoically.
"One is OK, two is OK, but three is too many," he said good-naturedly.
"I can't do anything else and he's trying as hard as he can. Let's hope nothing else goes wrong, but its part of the game. You never mean to do anything wrong. It's gone and it's history."
Makeshift opening batsman Shane Watson fell in the 90's for 97 for the third time in this series prompting a suggestion that the controversial batsman's cause would be better served if his high-profile girlfriend, a television newsreader, stayed away, since his only Test hundred at the MCG last month came when she could not attend.
With Australia facing almost certain defeat against the unfancied Pakistanis, knives are being unsheathed over Ricky Ponting's future, both as captain and batsman.
His Test batting average having slipped to below 50 for the first time since December 2004 and his position in the ICC rankings falling to 16, questions are being asked about his fitness following the blow dealt to his elbow in the Perth Test by West Indian fast bowler Kemar Roach.
More seriously, demands are being made in some quarters that the 35-year old step down as captain after five pressure-cooker years at the helm which have seen him gain the dubious distinction of losing the Ashes to the old enemy in England twice.
And one writer suggests this morning that the time has come for him to "swallow his pride" and demote himself to No 5 in the batting order from the pivotal one-drop position, as the great Viv Richards had done towards the end of his distinguished career when his awesome reflexes waned.
This, the critic says, would leave the higher slots to younger specialist batsmen Philip Hughes, Shane Watson and Michael Clarke, along with experienced opener Simon Katich.
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