Waugh struggles to find pleasure in one-sided win

Australia's captain Steve Waugh admits he struggled to find pleasure in his side's crushing win over a young and fragile Pakistan in Sharjah on Saturday.

Australia's first Test match in the Middle East resulted in one of the most emphatic victories in Test history - the win coming well inside two days after Pakistan was bowled out for 59 and 53.

Australia made 310 for a winning margin of an innings and 198 runs, with Matthew Hayden (119) scoring more on his own than Pakistan did in two innings.

Only three other teams have recorded a lower match tally than the 112 Pakistan scrounged together here and it's the lowest match aggregate in 56 years.

It's also only the second time in 50 years a Test match has finished inside two days, with England's win over the West Indies at Headlingley two years ago the other.

That game lasted 156.5 overs whereas Australia needed only 148.5 overs to win.

"It does a feel a little hollow," Waugh said of the win.

"You expect to have to fight a bit harder than that to win a Test match.

"It's actually hard to comprehend the game's over at this stage."

Waugh said he had some worries about the state of cricket generally following such a win.

"When a team gets bowled out for 50-odd twice and they're supposed to be one of better sides going around it probably is a bit of a concern ... we want to see Test matches being tough."

Waugh said Australia's bowling display was one of the best of he'd seen under his leadership.

"It's the best we've bowled for a long while - you never it expect it to be quite that easy but we did put a lot of pressure on the Pakistan batsmen."

Pakistan captain Waqar Younis said his team's inexperience was exposed by the hard-nosed Australians.

"Nobody stood up," Waqar said.

"Matt Hayden played an excellent innings. He grafted hard for his runs and none of our guys did anything like that."

Pakistan, already with experienced batsmen Yousuf Youhana and Inzamam-Ul-Haq out with injury, also lost all-rounder Abdur Razzaq today when Brett Lee broke his wrist.

Waugh praised Hayden's innings, which was 75 runs better than any other player's contribution.

"Matt Hayden's innings was crucial to set up a big first-innings lead and after that it was always going to be hard for them to bat again,' Waugh said.

Hayden's innings was an act of will power against the intense heat. The air temperature was around 40 degrees but on the ground inside the stadium, 51 degrees was recorded.

Waugh said it was the hottest Test he has played in since the famous tied Test against India in Madras in 1987.

Hayden batted for a shade over seven hours for his ninth Test century - his eight in the past 18 months.

The century continued a remarkable spell in recent Tests for the strapping Queenslander, who was the heftiest run-scorer in the game last year.

Since the start of the series against India last year, which marked his emergence as a world class player, he has been scoring centuries at a rate of one every second Test.

And he seems to thrive on adverse conditions, with this century on a par with the double-century he made in Madras last year in the third Test against India where heat and humidity were the equal of blazing sun here.

In Madras, he batted for nearly eight hours and was last man out while here he batted for seven hours and 13 minutes, facing 255 balls of which nine went to the boundary and another over the rope for six.

That swat over long-on into the empty stands brought up his century but the stadium was so deserted and quiet, it took Hayden a few seconds to register the fact he'd reached three figures.

After winning the first Test by 41 runs, victory in the series will go a long way towards ensuring Mark Waugh lasts another Test match after back-to-back to failures in his past two innings.

Waugh, like his brother and captain, has been under immense pressure to score runs but as long as Australia is winning the twins will be forgiven their shortcomings, which amounted to dismissals in successive balls on the first day here.

On a positive note, Mark Waugh's catching was back to its best and he took three excellent catches in Pakistan's second innings to make up for the three he dropped in the second innings of the first Test.