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.
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Australia finally end remarkable Pakistan chase
Despite Asad Shafiq and Yasir Shah's last innings heroics, Pakistan fall just short of an improbable run chase.
For Australia to skim home with a 39-run margin, after leading by nearly 300 on the first innings, suggests a litany of blunders. It is true that the general tactical approach tended to the passive, as has been characteristic of Smith's captaincy so far. Whether conscious or not, there was a sense among the Australians that external conditions – the night, the humidity, the pink ball, a Pakistan implosion - would do the job for them. Not enforcing the follow-on seemed a bad decision at the time, and even worse as time went on. As Pakistan inched closer and closer to their Little Bighorn, General Custer at second slip was getting ready for his actions, as they say, to be "studied extensively by historians".
With a 489-run lead and seven sessions to bowl Pakistan out, Smith always seemed to lack the time and space to venture something different. In his actions and body language, he always seemed to be fearing the worst. When part of the rationale for not enforcing the follow-on was to save the Australian pacemen's strength, it was odd to see Mitchell Starc, Josh Hazlewood and Jackson Bird being flogged to within an inch of their lives, bowling 113 overs between them. Strange indeed when Australia had a 200-Test wicket off-spinner on his favourite ground and had depended for most of the past decade on the variety of a fifth bowler. Throughout Pakistan's chase, Australia's tactics were stereotypical. When Plan A failed on Sunday, Smith turned to Plan A. On Monday morning, he tried Plan A. As the knuckles turned white and the captain kept nervously blowing into the hands that had twice let him down on Sunday…he turned to Plan A.
But Australia's shortcomings were made to look worse by Pakistan's determination and skill, and this was less a story of one side faltering than of the other finding its soul. On the fourth night, Pakistan had blazed their way forward with the abandon of men who didn't really think they would win. On the fifth morning, when nerves twitched, Asad Shafiq and Yasir Shah were the coolest players on the field. Amid an atmosphere that evoked a Pakistan home game in Dubai – a small but devoted chant of "Pakistan Zindabad!" echoing in a near-empty stadium – Asad steered the ship calmly and brilliantly. His 137 was a great, great innings. Put under little pressure early, he took singles when he wanted them and occasionally blazed through cover. Yasir, the focus of Australia's attack, got one airily through slips, another just clear of bat-pad, and another still to graze backward point's fingertips, but the target kept coming: out of the never-never, up over the horizon, and soon into sniffing distance. Mickey Arthur, criticised as a skittish spectator while coaching Australia, was as calm as the sphinx on his padded high chair.
It was the Australians who grew desperate. Nathan Lyon made to cheekily run out Asad while the ball was dead and the batsmen were conferencing. The hosts appealed for everything, and thought they had Yasir when Hazlewood received an lbw decision against the padding-up tail-ender. It was overturned on review, bouncing too high, and Hazlewood remained improbably wicketless.
By then only 60 remained for victory. Smith was back to…Plan A, with Hazlewood and Starc having a final charge. Asad chipped just to the left of a diving Matthew Renshaw. Hazlewood went past his outside edge. Opportunity was knocking, but so were Australia's knees. Forty-one to win.
Starc continued to pelt the ball short from around the wicket. In the 145th over of the innings, the still-lively bounce, which had been Australia's enemy, finally became their friend. Asad could not protect his face and keep the ball down at the same time, and an easy catch lobbed to gully. Asad said later that he wasn't expecting it. He can't have meant a short ball, of which Starc had bowled several hundred. He must have meant a ball that was both short and accurate. That was a shock indeed.
![Exasperation: Steve Smith reacts during Pakistans' run chase on day five of the first Test.](/web/20170509151616im_/http://www.canberratimes.com.au/content/dam/images/g/t/e/e/2/o/image.related.articleLeadwide.620x349.gtedj9.png/1482412118223.jpg)
After a gutsy hour and a half, Yasir turned to vaudeville to finish things off. His decision to throw the bat after Asad's dismissal was Pakistan's first moment of amateurism since Friday. Smith, hurling the ball at the stumps as much in exasperation as hope, finished the game and got that coppery taste of relief.
But Pakistan retained the momentum in what has turned into a suspense-filled series. Their fourth innings had passed the West Indies' world-record chase of 418 and went into the twilight zone of those highest fourth-innings scores that did not yield victory. Most of them end up forgotten, neither here nor there. Pakistan's total of 450 ended up equal third all-time, but even though it fell 39 runs short it was every bit as memorable as a winning chase. Australia dragged themselves off, smiling but weary, to croak out their victory song. Pakistan skipped away lightly, as if for the first interval in a three-act drama.
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