David Warner has spoken out about Pakistan’s wayward bowling on day one of the first Test in Perth as the visitors admitted they failed to deliver on their planned strategy.
Warner silenced his critics with a magnificent 164 to guide Australia to 5-346 at stumps, with all-rounder Mitchell Marsh to resume on 15* and wicketkeeper Alex Carey 14* when the second day begins (1.20pm AEDT).
But Pakistan’s new-look bowling line-up, which features two debutants, failed to consistently pitch the ball up – particularly early in the day – and were punished for their sloppy approach.
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“I thought we were able to put a bit of pressure on them, especially two debutants,” Warner said.
“Sometimes opposition teams come to Australia and they pitch one or two up and get driven back down the ground, then they get off that length.
“Where if you look at our bowlers, they try and consistently hit that length and they want you to hit straight past them.
“I don’t think I scored one run down the ground today, and that’s when you know you’ve got them off their length.
“That’s what I tried to do from ball one, drop that back leg if I got any width or pull if I can, and then try to get them to bowl to my scoring zones.
“I just don’t think they bowled enough balls in the right area to make us play.”
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Debutant Aamer Jamal, who had 2-63 on the first day, said: “We were thinking about trying to bowl a full length to him (Warner), because they are good enough to play square of the wicket.
“So that’s what we were planning early on to bowl very full to them but we didn’t succeed in our plan, and after that we came back and planned to bowl them properly short balls to get them out.
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But Jamal is confident Pakistan can turn things around early on Day Two, saying: “We are planning to bowl out Australia in the first hour on the second day. With the new cherry in our hand, we hope to make amends on the second day morning.”
Pakistan dropped two catches and missed a stumping, and Jamal added: “We let the Australian team off the hook by not accepting a few chances coming our way. Things could have been different had we managed these chances.”
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