Pakistan captain Babar Azam said that their approach and mindset on the fifth day of the Lahore Test but soft dismissals cost them the match.
Pakistan failed to hold off Australia on the fifth day of the deciding third Test at Lahore, eventually losing by 115 runs to concede the series. Captain Babar Azam felt the hosts were positive throughout the innings but the soft dismissals were the measure reason for their downfall.
“We didn’t go defensive, we played positive cricket. We had a good session early in the day but unfortunately we had soft dismissals and that’s the reason we lost the game,”
he said after the match, as per ESPN.
The Men in Green were set a target of 351 in 127 overs after a bold declaration from the opposition. The host openers batted out the fourth day’s play with 73-0 on the board. On the fifth day, Pakistan were 165-3 at one stage, and the win was a good possibility. However, they were eventually bowled out for 235, with Nathan Lyon picking five wickets and Pat Cummins picking three.
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“We had a simple plan – to take the momentum and then think after the tea. After lunch, we had a plan to play normal cricket. But when your main batters are dismissed, you obviously start thinking differently.
Still, Sajid [Khan] and I were trying to build a partnership and extend as much as we could. So the mindset was positive but it didn’t go our way,”
Azam added.
Babar was happy with his team’s overall performance in the series, even saying they dominated the first two Tests. Both the Tests had resulted in draws as the bowlers found minimal assistance on those pitches. In the first Test at Rawalpindi, only 14 wickets fell in five days, while at Karachi, the hosts batted out 171.4 overs to save the Test.
Pakistan struggled to get their balance right in the series. Faheem Ashraf and Hasan Ali were unavailable in the first Test due to injuries. They returned in the second game, but in the deciding Test, Pakistan preferred Naseem Shah over Faheem.
It bolstered their bowling attack as Naseem went on to pick four wickets in the first innings. Still, the move left them light on the batting front as it was seen in the collapses in both the innings.
