After a year of surprising-but-long-awaited ups and there-they-go-again downs, the Pakistani cricket fans were treated to a great 2nd Test at SCG, glued to their seats after the Aussie crumble on Day 1.

I woke up on the morning of the 3rd of January and switched to the sports channel. Haddin had just been caught by Yousuf, off Asif’s bowling. My sleepy eyes wondered if, for some odd reason, Haddin had been pushed up the order. But no. The Aussie innings had been messed up by Sami and Asif, and they were struggling at 62 for 7. “SIXTY TWO FOR SEVEN, YAAR” I announced to the wife, who hardly cared.

And then 127 all out. A decent enough chase by the Pakistani batsmen put up a score of 333, a 206 run first innings lead. Not bad. Now, all they had to do on the 3rd day was keep the scoring down. And they did try. Kami didn’t help much, but they did try. Hussey’s 134 not out should never have gone that far, and neither should Siddle have been allowed to make his highest ever test score – 38!

But the bitterness of all that seemed to simmer down once I realized that the Pakistan batsmen were set to chase a second innings lead of a meager 176, with 10 wickets in hand and almost two days left to play.

Yet we all know what happened.

Being a fan of the Pakistani cricket team is like having an on-off love affair with that beautiful woman who hurts you all the time, but you can’t really live without her. That’s when you break it off. And then, after some thought and time, you’re getting lonely, and no one else will do. So, you just go back to her. Only to be hurt again. When you first go back to her, she will be at her best behavior. She’ll cook you a nice meal, let you out with the boys, the sex will be great, and then BAM! She drops you in a snap. All done. “It’s off, asshole” she says, and you think that’s that. But she needs you too. She’ll start trying to win over your affections again, and you poor, simple soul, what can you do. You fall back in.

Although many may disagree, there’s really no one person to blame for yesterday’s debacle. Kami dropped catches and Misbah wasn’t great in the field either. Imran Farhat started well with the bat, but didn’t pick the slower one that got him out. Faisal Iqbal – I’m just wondering how in a population of millions and millions they couldn’t find a better one-down batsman. It doesn’t always need to be left to Yousuf and Umar Akmal. Kami and Misbah aren’t really performing with the bat. And beyond that, well, those bowlers had pretty much done exactly what was needed of them in the field, so expecting them to bat and save the innings was a tad too much. And what was up with the field setting that Yousuf placed for Hussey and Siddle?

Broken-hearted, I sat at my desk reading about the FoW on CricInfo, knowing that Pakistan was doing what it does best – be Pakistani. And then, a certain racist man cheered me up. In the oddest of occurrences, my Facebook news feed page showed an update from the Dawn blog, about the match, and in the comments section, I read a few comments by a guy I shall refer to as Ashiq the Anti-Christ, and his racist comments cheered me up. Not because I’m racist. But because while I read his one-sided fundamental views on the captain and his team, it made me realize that amongst all that hatred, terrorism, Islamism, political turmoil and economic instability, it’s still a wonder that Pakistan is considered amongst the top eight in the world, and that even after last year’s Lahore fiasco with the SL team, our players are invited to play at prestigious venues.

Thumbs up to that, I say.