Australia fight back after early jitters

Australia managed to fight back from a tight corner to keep control of the second Test at the end of the third day’s play at Melbourne. Mitchell Marsh’s 96 played a pivotal part in them retaining control even as Pakistan kept fighting.

Having gained a 54-run first innings lead on the back of Pat Cummins’ five-fer, Australia were quickly reduced to 16/4 at one point. Afridi, finding shape away from the left-hander, first had Usman Khawaja nicking behind and in his following over, strangled Marnus Labuschagne down the legside to leave Australia effectively at 60/2 by Lunch and the pattern continued post the break.

Hamza had David Warner chopping on while trying to pull, and brought an end to his final innings at MCG for just 6. He then got Pakistan cock-a-hoop by castling Travis Head with a vicious ball nipping in. At 16/4, Pakistan were effectively back roaring in the game.

It could have turned better had an edge from Smith not fallen short of slip or if Mitchell Marsh had not been dropped in the following over. But those mistakes proved costly as the duo started to fight back with a sturdy stand.

Marsh brought up his 7th Test fifty off just 70 balls while Smith remained steadfast at the other end. Together the duo ensured that Australia’s lead was healthy once again by putting on a resolute 163-run stand. As Marsh raced towards a ton in front of his family that waited with bated breath, Smith did little wrong and ensured that Pakistan could not claw their way back quickly.

Unfortunately for Marsh though he fell short of his ton by four runs before the end of the day’s play, as did Smith soon after his fifty leaving Pakistan with hopes boosted once again by stumps.

For at the start of the day, it was Cummins who held fort getting the ball to seam in and out, and toying with the batters. He played on Mohammad Rizwan’s tendency to play uppishly through covers having him caught in a trap that had seen two men stand close to each other at shortish extra cover. That wicket, on 215, threatened to open up the innings but Pakistan managed to keep up the fight through Shaheen Afridi and AamerJamal.

The latter used the long handle when necessary as Pakistan’s lower order ate away into the deficit. Cummins had good support from Nathan Lyon, who got the better of Afridi with an arm ball to end a 35-run stand. The duo also cleaned up the last two wickets as Hasan Ali was bowled through his defence while Mir Hamza was out stumped, giving Lyon his fourth and propping up Australia with the lead.

Brief Scores:
Australia 318 (Marnus Labuschagne 63, Mitchell Marsh 41; Aamer Jamal 3-64, Mir Hamza 2-51, Hasan Ali 2-61, Shaheen Afridi 2-85) & 187/6 (Mitchell Marsh 96, Steve Smith 50; Shaheen Afridi 3-58, Mir Hamza 3-27) lead  Pakistan 264 (Abdullah Shafique 62, Shan Masood 54; Pat Cummins 5-48, Nathan Lyon 4-73) by 241 runs