Right from the first ball bowled in this Test series, Pakistan has been able to pull the strings and dictate the proceedings both with bat and ball to make a formidable Ashes winning team look frail and fragile.

This may not have been the case had Australia been playing on lively pitches in their own backyard. Cricket in the sub-continent somehow does not suit their style or their technique on tracks which in character are relatively low and slow.

Since 2000 to now with the players that they have had, the Aussies should have produced better results than they have to show when it comes to matches played and lost. For them this series is not any different. Having been comprehensively beaten in the first Test, they have so far been unable to lift themselves or come up with a solid game plan against a Pakistan team which appear clearly a rejuvenated lot after their whitewash in the ODIs prior to the Tests.

Good, sensible batting and consistency of the Pakistan batsmen — spearheaded by Younis Khan — has kept the Aussies at bay while their bowling, though inexperienced, has also kept the Australian batsmen in check to the delight of skipper Misbah-ul-Haq.

On Saturday, Pakistan once again displayed that tenacity and resolve as they grabbed an impressive 309-run lead after bowling Australia out on a score from where they could have enforced a follow-on. That they didn’t go for it took me by surprise for the fact that this, of course, was the best opportunity for Pakistan to keep the pressure on and pick couple of more wickets by the end of the day to dent the Aussie pride further and win the match within four days.

If the Pakistan bowlers had toiled hard all day in the heat in bowling Australia out in the first innings, then I suppose Misbah’s decision to not enforce the follow on would have had some credence. But the fact is that on Saturday, which was the third day of the Test, while restricting Australia to only 261 the Pakistan bowlers bowled only 62 overs. And I feel that it would be wrong for anyone to say that the bowlers deserved a rest and were tired and that they may not have been able to bowl with as much thrust as in the first innings.

A follow-on here would no doubt have had a psychological impact on the Australian batsmen but Misbah chose not to enforce it, for reasons best known to him.

In recent years, however it has become kind of customary for captains to bat for the second time instead of asking the opponents to follow-on and then pile more misery on them by adding to whatever lead they had managed to get in the bag. Two quick wickets grabbed by the Australians as Pakistan batted for the second time must have given Misbah and his men food for thought whether they made the right decision.

But now that Pakistan has finished the third day with an imposing 370-run lead and all the time in the world to add more, the game still remains well in control for them. Anything over 400 to chase in the fourth innings is a tough ask. It has been achieved before but I see very little chances of it happening here when I look at how humiliating an outing this has been for the Aussies so far.

Published in Dawn, November 2nd , 2014