Winning after conceding 200-plus leads

Australia's thrilling 36-run victory over Pakistan was only the sixth instance in Test history of a team winning after trailing by 200-plus in the first innings

Cricinfo staff

06-Jan-2010

Australia completed one of the most remarkable comebacks in cricket's history when they beat Pakistan by 36 runs at the Sydney Cricket Ground. This was only the sixth time that a team overcame a first-innings deficit of more than 200 to win a Test. Australia have been involved in each of those six matches - thrice at the receiving end and thrice victorious.

Victories after conceding first-innings leads in excess of 200
Team	Opposition	First-innings deficit	Ground	Margin of victory	Start date
Australia	Sri Lanka	291	Colombo (SSC)	16 runs	17 Aug 1992
India	Australia	274	Kolkata	171 runs	11 Mar 2001
England	Australia	261	Sydney	10 runs	14 Dec 1894
Australia	South Africa	236	Durban	5 wickets	20 Jan 1950
England	Australia	227	Leeds	18 runs	16 Jul 1981
Australia	Pakistan	206	Sydney	36 runs	3 Jan 2010

Note: The table does not include the 2006 Oval Test between Pakistan and England where England were declared winners after Pakistan refused to play, and the Centurion Test in 2000 between England and South Africa in which both teams forfeited an innings each.

It's Australia's sixth-lowest Test score in the first innings of a match in a winning cause, but four of those were before 1955. The only other recent instance was against Sri Lanka in 2004, when they were bundled out for 120 in the first innings, but restricted the deficit to just 91, and ended up winning the match by 27 runs.

For Pakistan, though, it was the second time they bowled a team out for 127 and ended up on the losing side. Almost 17 years ago in Port-of-Spain they'd dismissed West Indies for the same score, only to be bowled out for 140 themselves, and eventually ended up losing up by a whopping margin of 204 runs. That West Indian attack included Curtly Ambrose, Ian Bishop and Courtney Walsh, but as in Sydney, the bowling hero in the second innings was a spinner - Carl Hooper took 5 for 40.

Pakistan's defeat in Sydney is their 11th in a row against Australia. Since 1990, they have a 2-15 win-loss record against Australia, which is easily their worst against any team.

Michael Hussey's unbeaten 134 lifts his average in his last six Tests to 60.40, with five 50-plus scores in 11 innings.

Nathan Hauritz's 5 for 53 is his second successive five-for in the fourth innings of a Test, lifting his last-innings average to 23.30, at a strike rate of less than 45 balls per wicket.

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