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When Pakistan last played a Test match in Sydney, two
Hawkesbury grade cricketers and ambitious cricketer Aamer Jamal watched from
the general admission stands. Jamal is a reluctant bricklayer. When Jamal was a
teenage cricket enthusiast back in Pakistan, it was in Sydney in 2010 that
Pakistan last secured a first-innings lead in a Test match played in Australia.
Jamal had not yet been born when Pakistan triumphed in a Test match in
Australia the previous time, in Sydney. This time, Jamal was occupied with toppling
Australia over during Pakistan’s Test match in Sydney.
Australia reached 187 for 2, but Steven Smith and
Marnus Labuschagne appeared almost bored as they put together a lacklustre
combination. Until Sajid Khan’s entrance, Labuschagne was happy to bat out five
straight maidens, but it was a pleasant, if somewhat unexpected, boost to the
score.
The hosts lost 3 for 18 runs and Smith was nearly
bored enough to drive straight to short cover with three men in position to
cause the first mini-collapse, but the match had reverted to its old
attritional leitmotif with tea calling. Mitchell Marsh and Alex Carey avoided
aggressive run-scoring in lieu of methodical compilation because they knew that
Pakistan’s large first-inning advantage was the only thing that could threaten
the hosts’ supremacy.
Jamal saw Pakistan initially hold off on getting the
fresh ball, then give it to Hasan Ali and Mir Hamza for a quick run. But in
this series, he has been to Pakistan what Pat Cummins has been to Australia—the
man Pakistan will eventually need to keep looking to for influence.
And what a difference. In Melbourne, Jamal and Marsh
engaged in an engaging match that could have concluded with an early wicket
when the batter took him on, except for a slip in the slips. Here, he dared the
batter to do it again two balls after Marsh had driven him through square, and
when Marsh erred, Shan Masood made no mistake at mid-off.
With genuine passion, Jamal revealed that he
“went to bed thinking about Pat Cummins” and how he was one wicket
ahead of him in the series charts. Jamal has never been anything but honest on
and off the pitch. It was crashing against the leg stump and colliding with
Cummins’ pad.
Even if he is now tied with Cummins for 18 wickets, he
is not going to think positively as he goes to sleep. The momentum he mentioned
would also propel Australia’s bowlers to devastating, likely decisive, effect,
as Pakistan’s advances from an hour earlier were reversed when they lost five
wickets for nine runs.
Perhaps it was appropriate that Jamal was facing the
last ball of the day while standing at the striker’s end. Even though he was
batting at number nine, Pakistan still needed him to keep Australia out after
he had only moments before assisted them in breaking through.
Jamal’s ability to perform miracles for this side is
undoubtedly limited, which is unfortunate because it means that his side may
not be able to use them as quickly. On Saturday, as Jamal bowls his heart out
in an almost certainly futile attempt to defend an absurdly low score, you
can’t help but wonder if his career transition from bricklayer to Pakistan
cricket miracle worker was more of a lateral one than it first seems.