When Plan A didn't work for Smith he turned to ... Plan A

Australia will take a one-nil series lead to Melbourne, but it was Pakistan who skipped off the Gabba like winners. A pale and drawn Steve Smith spoke of not having any fingernails and not particularly enjoying Test matches when they were quite so exciting, whereas Misbah-ul-Haq said he was 'very happy and proud' with a 'wonderful' effort, proceeding to tell the story of the match as if narrating a great victory. Only the scoreboard begged to differ, but few were fooled by that.

Don't switch to BBL yet ... Pakistan show they're worth watching

Pakistan's mid-match revival in Brisbane has added an estimated 10,000 ticket sales to Boxing Day in Melbourne, and interest in the New Year's Test match in Sydney also grew with each hour the tourists were able to prolong the struggle.

Decision not to enforce follow-on a lost opportunity driven by fear

Steve Smith's decision not to ask Pakistan to bat again in the first Test match in Brisbane on Saturday raises the question of whether there is any point to the follow-on rule at all.

Pakistan mugged by pace cartel in Gabba's dark alley

Lower-order runs might be an afterthought, but Test series are invariably won by the team whose bottom four contribute more.

BBL manipulates us – and we love it

Six years in, I still don't know if my instinctive fondness for the BBL proves that I am a renaissance man of catholic tastes and broad toleration, or a pea brain.

Renshaw is cricket's youngest fogey

With allowances made for daylight savings, television schedules and stopping Queensland's curtains from fading, the inaugural pink-ball Test match at the Gabba started only two hours later than the old red-ball ones.

Why a loss to Pakistan could cost Boof his job

Given the events of May 2013, Mickey Arthur's confessed feelings about coaching Pakistan against Australia are even less 'surreal' than the fact that it is Darren Lehmann who is under more pressure to keep his job.

Beating the Kiwis doesn't suddenly make Australians world-beaters

• COMMENT

Whew. That's a sigh of relief, not a reaction to a bad smell. For a moment the Australian cricket team was at its lowest point since the mid-1980s. But that kind of talk is so two weeks ago.

Nothing would be more exciting than another Woods major

• ANALYSIS

A man, Ralph Waldo Emerson said, is what he thinks about all day long. What then was Tiger Woods? What he thought about all day, or what he thought about all night?