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MELBOURNE. — Pakistan captain Shan Masood rued his side letting Australia off the hook at key moments in the second test but was taking plenty of positives out of the 79-run defeat at the Melbourne Cricket Ground on Friday.
The performance was a clear improvement on that the tourists produced in losing the opener by 360 runs two weeks ago and Masood, who took over as skipper in November, said he thought there were signs of a way forward for the team. “We’ve taken 20 wickets which we haven’t done in Australia for a while, that’s a box ticked,” he said. “In terms of runs, everyone got good starts and there were some nice fifties but in test cricket against quality sides, you want to get the hundreds.
“So a lot to work on but this is the blueprint of the way we want to play test cricket and hopefully we’ll keep doing that.”
Pakistan came close to ending a 15-match losing streak in Australia going back to 1995 as they chased 317 for victory on Friday and Masood thought it was clear where the match had been lost. “(You can’t) give a quality side like Australia a sniff, which we did. Maybe sometimes with the ball, maybe sometimes with the bat, yesterday maybe in the field,” he added.
“If you (don’t) drop someone in form like Mitchell Marsh, we might … have been chasing 237 today, but mistakes happen.” — Reuters.
Online Reporter