An Opportunity Missed for Australia as Pakistan Hit Back to Win Despite Nathan Lyon's Superb Bowling II AERON FINCH IMAGES II NATHEN LYON PICS II PAT CUMMINS IMAGES

PAK VS AUS

the mood amongst the group was fantastic it's not a win so we didn't celebrate it but it was a real acknowledgement of that's that's what we can do we got some momentum out of um out of the first test and some confidence and belief that we could we could win a test and compete in those conditions against that team steve oysters so sometimes drawing a test as important as winning a test and for us it was a really important test match and i know in the pakistani change room they thought they'd lost but actually they played better cricket for us for most of the time but that's the uniqueness of test cricket to draw that test match you know that should give the captain good confidence we'll give lisbon quadra great confidence should give travis head in his first test match great confidence now there's some really positive things that come out of that a lot of talk about uh the last game victoria's excellent effort really good really gutsy the sort of stuff we're talking about let's make sure that's not our grand final okay this is our grand final we're here to win this series against pakistan here and this is our opportunity have a good day we turned up day one and nathan lion bowled brilliantly and this time taken by nathan lyon good piece of bowling go on first ball another one right there's a chance well there we go pakistan have lost three for none i got him through the gate fantastic again by nathan lyon  four wickets in six balls australia on fire we had him 550 in the first session of the test match and then 

everything seemed to go downhill after that and that's a nice shot hammered away through the offside for another boundary individually as a team we can't afford to have those sessions we had today when you've got them by the nuts goes over the top and all the way to the 200 for pakistan this has been a very very good recovery we had him five for 50 and we're up and then we let him go you can't afford it and pakistan after winning the toss hold out for 282 to be in that position and then let that slip was was bitterly disappoint still hurts me now to think about it and then to lose a few wickets in a clump again was tough edge taken edge just takes one half chance catch and that's gone and then you lose one you lose two and guys rushing around who've been sitting there with their trackies on and before you not i'm putting the pads on because i've lost another

and what a day it's been for pakistan completely dominated australia i just thought today myself i thought we looked timid we were just half there half back half board poking out bats at the ball we didn't look committed or confident in any way shape or form and it's been a trend every time we put under pressure every time the last 12 months we've been under the pump we haven't got the job done and we're having these collapses too often we've got to find a way to cope with pressure that's not hitting heaps of balls and changing our techniques it's dealing with the pressure in your own mind when you are out there and we're falling well short of that  coaching you can be what you can do you can prepare them as well as possible the players and you give them as much love as you can sometimes you have to give them a little clip just so they're ready to play but then as soon as i walk over the white line as individually and as a group well they're living their lives now pakistan now in touching distance to topple australia there it is so pakistan 

win by 374 runs comprehensive victory and they'll take the series one nil it's such a hard business and we want them to play like ricky ponte but that's the end product and we want him to be the end product now but it's not how life 

works when opportunities come great teams they grab it and they shake it and they give us and we didn't do that we've got to get our batting better we've had 25 batting collapses in the last couple of years like that's just the facts that's not we can't sugarcoat you've got to be really patient with that you've got to remember the bigger picture you've got to respect how the real world works that's one of the things we're at the moment a lot of guys starting their journey appreciates everyone's efforts i know everyone worked bloody hard we prepared well we just didn't put into practice in the middle and that's what great players do that's for very good players not that many great players great player very good players and very good teams do so and we didn't quite do it the best australian teams haven't gone over there and won um and for us to be able to put ourselves in a position where we could have and then let it slip really hurt but yeah then you know cricket sport you get another opportunity and when you india were coming and all the sort of fanfare and hype that comes with with india and virat kohli and um we knew that was going to be a really exciting series as well  you