Australia’s batting curse
Peter English
25-Feb-2013
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Greg Baum, writing in the Sunday Age, says a curse is upon Australia's Test team, denying it all-but-made centuries.
A bawdy but cheerful Boxing Day crowd, a benign pitch, a depleted and callow Pakistan attack and two crucial fumbles all favoured Australia on a sun-kissed MCG, but still two more tons went begging, one each for openers Shane Watson and Simon Katich. It is a flaw rather than a failing, but it has become a frustration. For Australia, the noughties are ending nervously.
Pakistan could hardly have made a worse start to the series, writes Peter Roebuck in the Sun-Herald.
They toiled away to little effect for four hours and it took an outburst of Keystone Cops cricket to bring them a wicket. Had Shane Watson and Simon Katich been on remotely the same wavelength between the sticks they might still occupy the crease. Instead their negotiations went about as well as those in Copenhagen.
Peter English is former Australasia editor of ESPNcricinfo