SL A fight back after Fudadin ton

West Indies A 239 for 6 (Fudadin 103, Kraigg 75, Kaushal 5-94) v Sri Lanka A
Scorecard

Assad Fudadin's fourth first-class hundred helped West Indies A to a strong start in Moratuwa, but a five-wicket haul from the offspinner Tharindu Kaushal dragged the visitors down to 239 for 6 at stumps.

Opting to bat, West Indies began brightly as Fudadin and his opening partner Kraigg Brathwaite put up a 137-run stand. Kraigg muscled seven fours to make his way to 75, but his dismissal in the 38th over triggered a slide, as Kaushal struck at quick intervals to reduce West Indies A to 178 for 5.

Fudadin, though, batted through the collapse and managed to score 103, with 11 fours. He and Chadwick Walton hinted at a recovery with a 41-run partnership, but Fudadin was caught by Kaushal off his own bowling towards the end of the day.

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Disciplinary hearing on RCA postponed again

The BCCI disciplinary committee meeting has been deferred, once again, with none of the three stakeholders of the Rajasthan Cricket Association turning up for the hearing today at the BCCI headquarters. The BCCI had asked the Lalit Modi group, the opposing Amin Pathan faction and the Rajasthan State Sports Council to appear before its disciplinary committee today to discuss the RCA's suspension.

"None of the three parties turned up, so no proceedings could be held. But we will give them another chance to present their side," Shivlal Yadav, the BCCI interim president who is also a member of the disciplinary committee, told ESPNcricinfo. He said the date of the next meeting is yet to be decided.

While the Lalit Modi faction is the elected set of RCA office-bearers, the Pathan group had claimed to have overthrown it by moving a no-confidence motion last month. Since the Modi faction challenged the move in the Rajasthan High Court, the court handed over the administration of the association to the state sports council.

It was Modi's election as the RCA president in May that had forced the BCCI to suspend the RCA and forward the matter to the disciplinary committee. In its last hearing, on September 20, Mehmood Abdi, the RCA deputy president on the Modi side, had raised objections against the institution and composition of the committee, thus forcing the first adjournment of the hearing.

In his reply to the notice announcing the meeting on Saturday, Abdi continued to protest against Yadav and BCCI vice-president Rajiv Shukla's appointment. He cited a clause in the BCCI rulebook stating Yadav and Shukla were appointed "only for a year", and thus are ineligible to continue working as disciplinary committee members.

The BCCI, meanwhile, is considering continuing proceedings beyond the specified six-month deadline; according to its rulebook, suspension of a member association or individual ceases to exist if the disciplinary committee doesn't decide on the matter in six months. It is understood that, considering the complex and sensitive nature of the matter, the disciplinary committee will be asked to continue its proceedings beyond the six-month window though.

"The office-bearers can decide on it. Since there have been so many litigations about the RCA and the BCCI annual general meeting is scheduled for the next month, there won't be a problem if an extension is to be granted to the disciplinary committee," said a BCCI insider.

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Choosing the 'difficult path' pays off for Younis

Younis Khan, the Pakistan batsman, has said he chose the more difficult path by deciding to play the Tests against Australia, after being dropped for the ODIs, and the decision has paid off.

Younis had lashed out at the PCB and selectors for dropping him for the one-day series, and challenged them to build a team without him in the mix. However, he was picked for the Tests, and in Dubai he has gone on to break the record for the most Test hundreds for Pakistan, become the first player in 40 years to score two hundreds in a Test against Australia, and the seventh Pakistan batsmen to hit twin hundreds.

He admitted that he was happy he decided to play in the series. "There was a lot of talk about me, that I might not be picked in any team as I made myself unavailable," he said after the fourth day's play. "But when I saw Pakistan losing the T20 and ODI series comprehensively, I reconsidered my decision and thought a lot. I could have chosen an easy option, to shun playing against the top-rank Australia but I chose to put myself in a difficult situation instead of going away choosing the easy one - to quit.

"Whole of my carrier I have chosen the same path. Before coming here I had no hundred against Australia and now suddenly I have two in one Test, which is great. So it's all about how you think and I am positive and always wanted to make my country and myself proud. I never ever thought that I will achieve the record and go pass Inzamam but after my 20th hundred I made myself believe that if I keep myself fit I can make 30-35 hundreds."

When asked if his second hundred against Australia were the result of the perfect execution of a plan or he just went with the flow, he said: "I didn't even think about a hundred today, but I thought about the heat and that the Australia bowlers are not used to it, so I have stand firm and runs will come automatically.

"At the same time, both the youngsters Ahmed Shehzad and Azhar Ali have made it very easy for me to excel from the other end. They way Ahmed hit their fast bowlers today, it was amazing and it's always good when these youngsters perform. All these factors pushed me to make it to the end of the day."

Michael Clarke, the Australian captain, was all praise for Younis: "He's a very good player and has been for a long time. I found out yesterday this is only his 93rd Test match, I thought he'd played a lot more than that. He's one of the gentlemen of our game, a class player. I was really impressed with the way he swept, especially left-arm orthodox bowling. It takes a class player to be able to sweep against the spin in those conditions. I'd like to see him not make as many runs, especially against Australia, but I like watching Younis bat."

In response, Younis said he respected the game and his opponents, and so got respect in return. "Main thing is I respect the game, I respect the bowler and I respect [opposition] teams. Whoever performs anywhere in the world, I am happy for them all the time. When they meet with me, I just go and shake hands with them, congratulate them. In the field they might go hard at me, but they know me off the field too. I respect people and in return I do get respect."

That Pakistan have done so well with the bat in this game, and are in the great position they find themselves in going into the final day, is also due to the way their other second-innings centurion, Ahmed Shehzad, played. Shehzad said his only plan was to 'go for the kill'.

"Playing here is always difficult but I had to open and used all my skills - played sweep shots, used my feet, as the idea was to not let their spinners settle," Shehzad said. "Because I know if I play six balls standing in the crease, one of the balls might hit a patch and undo me, so I had to go at things hard rather than be dominated. It was obviously a test of fitness as well, but it was the team requirement not to give them the control. We had the lead and the plan was to go for the kill.

"My motivation was when Younis bhai told me that it took him 12 [14] years to score a hundred against Australia, 'so make sure you don't have to take that long'. So I was determined, and it worked well."

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Clarke craves time in the middle after tough day

'Pakistan outplayed us in all areas' - Clarke

You have to hand it to Michael Clarke, he doesn't shirk responsibility when things go wrong. In a different era, the Australians used to ask then coach Tim Nielsen to answer the hard questions on days like this. "Tough Day Tim", the media called him. But often during Clarke's captaincy he has insisted he front the press when the team has failed, most notably when they were skittled for 47 in Cape Town in 2011. Add day four in Dubai to that list.

This was a day on which Pakistan scored 248 runs with what seemed the greatest of ease. At length, Australia claimed two wickets of little consequence as the lead ballooned. Then came the other side of the equation. In the space of 23 balls, Australia lost four wickets for five runs as the spinners Zulfiqar Babar and Yasir Shah bamboozled the batsmen. And most critically, Australia's best player of spin was one of them.

Clarke was on 3 when he prodded forward to Yasir and was adjudged lbw to a ball that straightened. A lengthy chat with his partner Chris Rogers led to a glum-looking Clarke deciding against a review and trudging off. Replays suggested that Clarke had got an inside edge on the ball and would likely have been reprieved had he challenged the decision. That he didn't said something about Australia's lack of confidence.

"Ah, I'd like to know as well," Clarke said when asked what had gone through his head. "There's a number of things. The fact that I wasn't sure if I hit the ball and I was unsure if it hit my bat before my pad. So I was thinking it was probably pad then bat if I did hit it at all. Chris was unsure as well up the other end.

"My mindset is because I'm unsure I didn't want to waste the referral when I knew the rest of my team-mates were probably going to need them tomorrow. It was certainly a mistake, an error on my part looking back at the replay once I walked off the field. I'm extremely disappointed. I'm disappointed that it was even that close. The ball didn't really spin much. I should have used my bat."

It continued a disappointing tour for Clarke, who scratched to 2 in the first innings before inside-edging onto pad and up to short leg in the first innings, having made 10 and 5 in the warm-up game in Sharjah. His limited preparation was unavoidable, given the hamstring injury he suffered during the one-day series in Zimbabwe in August, but has left him short of game time in the lead-up to the Test.

"My performance in this Test match has been disappointing with the bat. There's no doubt about it," Clarke said. "I read somewhere the other day that I'm short of match practice and that probably sums my form up at the moment. In the last Test match I played I scored a big hundred for Australia. But I'm short of time in the middle.

"It has been seven months since our last Test match and I've only played one one-dayer in between that time. That doesn't make it easier. But you're playing at the highest level. You've got to find a way to fight your backside off and spend time in the middle and then once you get in the game it gradually gets easier."

The problem for Australia's batsmen in this Test has been surviving long enough for batting to become easier. Five of Pakistan's batsmen in the first innings faced more than 100 balls, and two in the second innings. The only men who achieved that feat for Australia in the first innings were the openers David Warner and Chris Rogers, while rapid-fire wickets in the second ended any hope of players building an innings.

"I'm not looking to blame anybody else or criticise anybody else," Clarke said. "I've always loved the challenge of facing spin bowling. I've been out twice to spin bowling in this Test match. The guys are working hard, they're doing everything they can. In subcontinental conditions, generally your first innings is your key, you need to go as big as you can.

"I know Pakistan had the best of batting conditions, but I think in the second innings they showed again their class, batting on wickets that have a little bit of spin. But it's not so much the spin, I think it's the slowness of the wicket. The spin is a little bit inconsistent and I think that's probably what has caught us out today, guys have played for spin and a lot of us have been out to balls that actually haven't spun too much."

It has not just been Pakistan's bowlers who have troubled the Australians in Dubai, though. The efforts of Younis Khan in particular to score two centuries in the game, and Pakistan's batsmen more generally have frustrated Clarke and his men in the field. Clarke said the Australians had been outplayed in every facet of the game over the first four days, and could learn from the way Younis and his colleagues batted.

"We probably haven't been able to find as much out of the wicket as Pakistan have on one hand," he said. "On the other hand Pakistan have batted a lot better than us ... They've got a lot of experience in their Test team, and I think you've seen that so far over the four days. Younis has played exceptionally well and generally does in these conditions.

"You need to take notice, watch and learn and all of us, for the guys that are out, we need to find a way to be full of confidence and be hitting the ball better than we are come the second Test match. For the guys that are left to help see us fight tomorrow. It's really important they play their natural game and back themselves. Anything can happen in this game."

Clarke is usually a believer in the Shane Warne "win from anywhere" mantra, but the word "win" did not spill from Clarke's mouth even once during his 12-minute press conference. Realistically, a draw is the best Australia can hope for with only six wickets in hand, and even that requires a good deal of optimism. This is one place in the world where praying for rain is pointless.

"I don't think Australians give up without a fight and that'll be our goal tomorrow, to fight our backsides off and you never know," Clarke said. "Steve Smith is a very good player of spin bowling, Brad Haddin has a lot of experience, Mitchell Marsh looked good in the first innings and Chris Rogers is fighting. So we'll wait and see."

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