Against the ropes, Langer's Australia persevere

"Everyone has a plan 'til they get punched in the mouth." Mike Tyson's succinct summary of boxing came easily to mind as Australia toiled on the flattest of Dubai pitches, after losing the toss and being sentenced to a day or two's hard labour against a Pakistan side well versed in batting time on slow, low surfaces.

In fact, it cannot have been far from the thoughts of the new coach Justin Langer, a renowned pugilist who once sparred with the former world champion Vic Darchinyan in the Sydney gym of Jeff Fenech. The shock of a Pakistan opening stand lasting all of 63 overs and 205 runs resembled that of a near-knockout punch in round one of a bout, but Langer had to be heartened by the way his team persevered, refusing to yield and even landing a blow or two of their own in a final session of enormous effort.

"Inside the boxing ring it's the same as when you're playing Test cricket--nowhere to hide," Langer had said at the time he met Darchinyan. "You've got to face a lot of your own fears. If you punch someone properly it's like hitting the ball in the middle of the cricket bat--it's a really nice feeling."

Fearful or not, no-one imagined the first Test match for Tim Paine's team since the Newlands ball-tampering scandal would be a simple task, particularly given the trouncing of a far stronger team in these parts four years ago. There have been oodles of meetings, plans and what Mitchell Starc termed "really, really constructive conversations" about how Australia would tackle this assignment, focusing as much on how the bowlers would work in concert in adverse conditions as how the batsmen would deal with spin and reverse swing.

Equally, Cricket Australia as a whole and the men's national team, in particular, have been subject to dual reviews of their culture and behaviour, the better to ensure that the events leading to the banned trio of Steven Smith, David Warner and Cameron Bancroft watching this match on television at home are never repeated. All those high-minded intentions and aims are undoubtedly harder to think about when the thermometer reads 39 degrees Celsius in the shade and Imam-ul-Haq has just clouted the last ball before tea into the all but empty stands at Dubai International Stadium.

The way Australia started certainly suggested a team finding their way. Paine posted only two slips in acknowledgement of the conditions, and the early overs from Starc and Peter Siddle were serviceable rather than fire-breathing. Nathan Lyon similarly dropped onto a length without being able to draw too much in the way of false strokes, and at the other end Jon Holland experienced some struggles with finding the right rhythm in the face of batsmen seeking to attack him, a sight familiar to those who watched him bowling, albeit with far inferior preparation, in Sri Lanka two years ago.

Scarcely a ball beat the bat as Mohammad Hafeez provided a masterclass in how to sculpt a bowler-blunting top-order century. His only misstep along the way had been a skier to long off from Holland's bowling, whereupon the vice-captain Mitchell Marsh tried to leap for an AFL-style mark rather than a catch and saw the chance slip through his fingers - in fairness, the Grand Final at the MCG was only a week ago. Otherwise, glimmers of a wicket were as rare as Dubai raindrops.

The first signs a change was going to come did actually appear in the overs before tea, as Starc began to gain sharp reverse swing, and created what should also have been a chance. Leaning forward, Hafeez edged one tailing away from around the wicket, but Paine had dispensed with all slip fielders and could only dive helplessly as the ball sailed into the position Aaron Finch would somewhat belatedly occupy in the following over.

Nevertheless, that over was a source of possibility for the Australians when the final session began, and it was Siddle who led the way with a spell of grinding discipline and sometimes fiendish curve. After Lyon had managed to coax an edge from Imam that slapped straight into Paine's gloves, Hafeez's stay was ended by an inswinger that swerved into his pads and, on the DRS ball-tracker, the outside of the leg stump after Richard Kettleborough raised his finger.

Siddle's spell was ultimately worth 5-4-4-1, with a single boundary being the only scoring shot off the bat, as the tourists began to climb back into the contest after surrendering what in the boxing ring would have been a lengthy points deficit after a few rounds. The high level of fitness insisted upon by Langer, and the acclimatisation provided by two weeks in the UAE, were proving their worth.

"We were still positive, still up and about," Siddle said of the tea break. "We knew that they'd batted well, the wicket hadn't offered a lot, there wasn't a lot of movement as such yet, so we knew we had to keep grinding and we got close to that reverse swing early on, but it probably took a bit longer being a day-one wicket, it's always a lot harder. As we saw this evening once that ball started reversing, yes it was a little bit soft, but we saw some inroads, the boys stuck together and we had some really good partnerships to be able to maintain that through the whole session.

"It's always a tough challenge going over to the different Asian conditions and digging in with the heat but the boys handled it really well - today was one of the cooler days we've had since we've been here, so that was quite refreshing actually walking out this morning and a little less humidity, so that was nice for the boys. But it's going to be about how we back up tomorrow, we've got the new ball ready to go whenever we want to take that, so we'll have some discussions whether we want to stick with this one for a little bit or take it straight away. But it was well toiled by us and you look at it at tea time, it could've been a lot worse."

Others rallied to join in the fight in the final hour, as Holland crept closer to his best and Starc summoned a swift final spell, despite the obvious discomfort of cramp. Siddle, a longtime team-mate of Holland for Victoria, observed the left-arm spinner's day with plenty of empathy. "I've played a lot with him over the years and watched him bowl," he said. "He wasn't far off bowling his best, but it did look like they were a lot more aggressive against him and sitting on Nath a little bit.

"Once we saw later in the day there it was starting to grip a bit more, a little bit of spin and bounce, he started to trouble them. That showed with the wicket he got, a couple of close calls along the way, it isn't going to be as easy to do that in the rest of this match. The way he dug in, you have to, but sometimes it can be hard and you lose your way, but he kept going and to get that breakthrough at the end was a great reward for us."

At final drinks, Pakistan had added a mere 25 runs to their tea-time tally, and by the close it was still only 56, at the cost of three wickets. The Australians were tired and sore but far from despondent, knowing they had fallen behind on the day but won the session that looked at first glance to be the hardest proposition of all three. In doing so, they walked much of the talk of the past two weeks - and indeed the past seven months since Newlands - a team that toils hard and can win admiration as well as cricket matches.

"Everyone around that last session bowled superbly. Building pressure, bowling in partnerships, things we've spoken a lot about in the lead-up, that last session summed up what we've been working on," Siddle said. "To only go for 50 runs at the back end of a day when a team is none down at tea, I think that's a tremendous effort from the whole group to be able to restrict them to that, but get wickets along the way it showed the hard work's paying off."

After his 2006 meeting with Langer, Darchinyan had expressed surprise at how well the batsman had boxed. "I was quite surprised," Darchinyan said. "He can hold a punch. I did not go very hard because he is not boxer, but he is fit, I can see. He's not scared, coming forward. Not punching hard, but he's good." There will, undoubtedly, be harder punches thrown in this series, but Australia have already risen once from the canvas.