Now The Draw Is A Win

Finally, the sun went down on the last evening of the last test match of the year and the shadow of fear hanging over Pakistan was also removed.

In the same year, Pakistan was also declared as the dark horse for the World Test Championship final and then in the same year, Pakistan suffered a clean sweep defeat at home grounds for the first time in its history. And in the same year this rare phenomenon was also seen that Pakistan missed the taste of victory even after playing four consecutive Test matches.

If Babar Azam wanted to, he could have completely frustrated Tim Southee by continuing the innings. But they completely went against the etiquette of hospitality and declared the innings even though it was half an hour before the end of the match.

Southee's batters, however, did not let the frustration creep in and showed the same determination that Ben Stokes' batting line had shown a week ago. If umpires had not ended the game due to bad light, result could be different.

But the happy aspect for Pakistan here was the batting of the fourth innings which was not easy in front of Ish Sodhi's maneuvers on this broken pitch. But the role played by Sarfaraz Ahmed and Saud Shakeel in his death is worthy of praise.

On the plus side for Pakistan, Mohammad Wasim showed the Pakistani think-tank in search of all-rounders an option who could not only swing the ball at 140 kmph but also deliver the fourth innings with his bat. Can also suffer from pressure.

But overall this performance was not good for Pakistan. Be it bowling, batting or fielding, the Kiwi superiority was evident in all three fields and the Pakistani team remained under siege.

But the tragedy does not end there. The style of cricket played by England against Pakistan last week, neither Pakistan could find any answer to it nor did Pakistan have any answer to Williamson's old school cricket played last week.

When Pakistan was being touted as a 'dark horse' for the finals at the start of the current World Test Championship cycle, the odds did not seem far from reality. Pakistan's schedule was also much easier than the previous cycle as they had to face rivals like Australia, England and New Zealand at their home grounds.

After the clean sweep of South Africa, Pakistan's morale was so high that all these estimates and predictions were not at all far-fetched. The momentum that Pakistan had, had it been maintained against Australia and England, the points table of the Test Championship would have been completely different today.

But the defensive strategy adopted by Pakistan in the first Test against Australia by blowing the grass off the pitch, as the years pass, that approach has become rich in the yeast of this team. Survival is now becoming the top priority of this team.

And when the first priority is to avoid defeat at any cost, then the 'fun' of a draw is no less felt than a victory. Where the system of power came in handy in events like the World Cup, the same system of power worked once again in Karachi and saved Pakistan from the fear of defeat.