When stumps were drawn, the score was 1873/3 over 66 balls, with Marnus Labuschagne (44) and Travis Head (9), both unbeaten batsmen, remaining unbeaten on their wicket.
Marnus Labuschagne and Usman Khawaja’s contributions helped Australia reach 187/3 by stumps on day one at Melbourne Cricket Ground, while Pakistan struggled through much of Tuesday’s second Test match. Australia managed just three wickets during Day 1.
Australia completed their innings unbeaten after 1873/3 overs in 66 innings, with Marnus Labuschagne (44) and Travis Head (9) remaining unbeaten on their respective wickets.
Australia was pleased with their total stumps score of 187/3 on an inclement Melbourne day, resulting in nearly an entire session being lost due to rain.
After three hours and the Tea break, Pakistan finally saw an opportunity for victory as Aamer Jamal took out Steve Smith for 26 in 57.5 overs.
Steve Smith was initially given an LBW ruling off Shaheen Afridi at 19. However, Steve successfully challenged this ruling after replays revealed the ball had crossed over both stumps.
After being declared out due to Aamir Jamal’s catch-behind appeal, Smith was later declared not out by umpire Amir Maqbool. However, Pakistan managed to overturn this ruling after replays revealed an edge in favor of Pakistan over India by only a tiny margin. Travis Head remained unbeaten on nine, set up Labuschagne as opener as cricket resumes play tomorrow morning.
Usman Khawaja and David Warner’s inaugural partnership put Australia in good stead against Pakistan at Tea time.
Tea was served, and Australia scored 114/2 after 42.4 overs, with Marnus Labuschagne (14) and Steve Smith (2) remaining unbeaten on their respective wickets.
Pakistan captain Shan Masood won the toss and decided to bowl during the second test match against Australia. However, Usman Khawaja and David Warner proved decisive with their approach and caused their Pakistan bowlers to work overtime with an excellent batting pitch.
Pakistan secured good runs at both ends with Shaheen Afridi and Mir Hamza bowling together, yet neither could generate any tangible benefit from their wicket.
Warner and Khawaja were unaffected by Afridi and Mir Hamza’s early efforts with the new ball; both batsmen escaped through 10 overs without injury.
Afridi delivered an exquisite delivery through the channel, which angled upwards before cutting away and striking Warner at third wicket from the third wicket after Warner picked it up by batsman two, picking out Abdullah Shafique at first slip but missed an easy chance due to speed of flight and height of edge towards Abdullah Shafique at first slip despite fastball velocity and size towards first slip Abdullah Shafique who successfully blocked.
Afridi was taken aback when Australia scored 90 runs off Afridi’s wicket; Pakistan were left paying dearly as Australia put together their opening pair and added 90 more runs than had previously been scored against them.
Pakistan struck late during lunch, as Agha Salman successfully dismissed Warner for 38 runs after scoring three fours before being discharged from play. Warner scored all his runs before leaving and eventually being removed from play due to ineptitude on Agha Salman’s part.
On day one of the MCG Test, Australia scored 90/1 at lunchtime on Day 1. Pakistan bowlers responded quickly after lunch; only 22 runs were conceded following this break in play.