New Years Test: Day 1

New Years Test: Day 1

Day 1 of the New Year's Test also called the Pink Test at SCG Sydney and Pakistan have started where they left off in Melbourne.

After winning the toss and deciding to bat first we lost two wickets in two overs.
We were already a bit angry with ourselves for arriving later than we planned. The queue to get in, along with the long walk to our seats made us stand for the National Anthem in a random stand enroute to our seats then losing the two wickets really set us back.

Even the chanting from Pakistan fans, which normally starts very soon was absent. The aussie chants are always much later in the afternoon after they have filled their bellies with the 'Amber nectar'.

A few partnerships later, the score looked slightly better and this gave a new lease of life to our SuperFan Larry Cricket and the Pakistan Zindabad chants started.
A flurry of wickets, three in three overs knocked us back again and the writing was on the wall but if we ever needed a saviour it was now and up stepped Aamer Jamal. The last wicket partnership of 86 between Jamal and Hamza had a tinge of Stokes and Leach in 2019 with Jamal refusing singles and protecting Hamza until later in the over.

A galliant knock by Jamal of 82 who deserved his century frustrated not just the team but also the fans as the vocal scale of the Pakistan fans went up with every dot ball Hamza batted and every boundary Jamal scored with 9 fours and four sixes in his innings.

The words 'roller coaster ride' are used too often but if ever there was a day when they really should be used it was today.


We got bowled out with 12 minutes of the scheduled play left so taking out 10 minutes for the changeover, we had 1 over to bowl to Australia.

Warner came out to a guard of honour from the Pakistan team and a standing ovation from every fan, whether wearing green or gold, in his last ever Test and Shan chose Sajid to bowl spin for that final over. Warner being the showman he is smacked the first ball for 4 but nearly succumbed to a ball that hit him and just missed the bail by a whisker.

If this is what Test cricket is like then who needs T20's. Roll on day 2!

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