Cummins three-fer swings the MCG Test back towards Australia

Pat Cummins bowled the delivery of the day – and perhaps the Test – to clean up Babar Azam and picked two other wickets to put Australia on top at the end of an engrossing Day 2 in Melbourne. Pakistan did a lot of right things for two-thirds of the day, before losing five wickets in the final session.

Bright sunshine and tough batting conditions greeted the two teams on Wednesday as Pakistan’s pacers made swift inroads after being held off by Marnus Labuschagne on Day 1. Labuschagne got to his half-century, but was nicked off the impressive Aamer Jamal, who finished as the pick of the Pakistan bowlers with three wickets. All of Shaheen Afridi, Hasan Ali and Mir Hamza picked two each as Australia just couldn’t string partnerships together. Mitchell Marsh came out swinging for a fiery 60-ball 41 but Australia managed 131 runs in the morning session for the loss of seven wickets. Pakistan gave away 52 runs in extras in their bid to try harder in favourable conditions, but they were exceptional with their catches.

The afternoon session was the lull after the storm as Australia’s quicks had their share of dominance in helpful conditions. Even as Josh Hazlewood, Mitchell Starc and Pat Cummins probed the outside edge with their persistent off-stump channel lines, Pakistan openers Abdullah Shafique and Imam Ul Haq did enough to defy them. Nathan Lyon reaped the rewards of the sustained pressure as he got Imam to nick a flighted full ball to Labuschagne at first slip.

Pakistan duo of Shan Masood and Shafique shifted gears at the start of the final session. They targetted Lyon, as Masood danced down the track to hit a four down the ground on the spinner’s first delivery after Tea. Even Starc went for 13 in an over before Cummins made a double bowling change, ending Lyon’s post-tea spell at 4 overs. Shafique meanwhile got to his half-century and Masood was approaching his too, before Cummins turned the session – and the day – on its head.

First, he ended Shafique’s stay with a sharp catch off his own bowling, and then bowled a back-of-a-length ball that ducked in and breached Babar Azam’s defence in the space of two overs. Masood got to his fifty soon but Cummins brought back Lyon after drinks and dismissed the Pakistan captain. Lyon saw through Masood’s intention to take him on again and bowled slower through the air, forcing a miscued outside edge on a big hit to Mitchell Marsh at cover.

Australia ramped up their efforts to carve open Pakistan’s middle-order and Hazlewood provided just that. He cleaned up Saud Shakeel from round the stumps with a nip-backer on a length that breached the bat-pad gap. Less than 10 overs before stumps, Agha Salman attempted a drive away from his body to nick the ball behind and give Cummins his third wicket of the innings. With that Pakistan went from 68/1 at Tea to 194/6 at stumps, still trailing by 124 runs.

Brief Scores:
Pakistan 194/6 in 55 overs (Abdullah Shafique 62, Shan Masood 54, Mohammed Rizwan 29*; Pat Cummins 3-37, Nathan Lyon 2-48) trail Australia 318 in 96.5 overs (David Warner 38, Usman Khawaja 42, Marnus Labuschagne 63, Steven Smith 26, Mitchell Marsh 41; Aamer Jamal 3-64, Mir Hamza 2-51, Hasan Ali 2-61, Shaheen Afridi 2-85) by 124 runs