Geoff Lawson

Calcutta: Pakistan coach Geoff Lawson on Saturday defended the decision to play Shoaib Akhtar in the second Test.

“He bowled at 130kmph. The guy is ill. We had a tough choice to make yesterday (Friday)… It was a tricky decision. We had to make that decision in five minutes. We decided to go with Shoaib and he was keen to play. We got 24 overs out of him. Of course we’d have liked him fully fit,” Lawson said.

“We probably had only five fit players at the start of the game. But we have to play. Test cricket is all about rising up to the challenge, no matter whether you are sick or injured. Staying in the field for five sessions is an extremely difficult task and I think my boys did that really well.”

The former Australian pacer felt they still had hope. “The pitch is still playing well. We’ve got some good batting to come,” said Lawson. “If we bat through to stumps tomorrow (Sunday) and a bit the day after, then we may be able to save the follow-on.”

On an ideal Test wicket, he said, “you need a certain balance between the bat and the ball to make cricket more attractive. If I were the bowler here, I would have probably wanted to be down with a hamstring pull…”

Lawson also defended his other bowlers. “We bowled pretty well at times on a pitch that was a batting paradise. Danish Kaneria was outstanding. He didn’t bowl too many bad balls, didn’t have a lot of luck, but bowled really well. We thought he had (Sourav) Ganguly early on. Mohammed Sami kept going. He didn’t get wickets but he still bowled very well. We look at it as a learning process. To suggest it’s the worst bowling performance is a bit wide of the mark.”

Talking about Sourav’s century, Lawson said “it’s his highest score at Eden Gardens, so well played,” adding that they were denied the left-hander’s wicket early on.