The all-rounder Mitchell Marsh missed Test century after Agha Salman caught the ball at the slips during the second test in Pakistan’s Australia tour.
Mitchell Marsh missed Test century at Melbourne test
The all-rounder Mitchell Marsh and middle-order batter Steve Smith helped their side to recover from early dismissal during the second innings in the second test at Melbourne. Marsh-Smith’s duo helped the side to recover from the top-order collapse.
Shafique missed an opportunity to get off Marsh when Australia was 4/46 which is an expensive wicket that could have helped Pakistan to create disaster on the ground. But Marsh turned it upside down by balancing the scorecard.
Mitchell Marsh scored 96 runs on the 3rd day and was dismissed by Shaheen Afridi. The ball went straight into the hands of slip Agha Salman.
The Boxing Day test came into balance after Pakistan bowlers dominated the field with their swing to collapse Australia’s top order epically. Afridi dismissed Usman Khawaja and Marnus Labuschagne while Hamza bagged the wickets of Warner and Travis Head.
By the 2nd ball of the sixth over, the Aussies lost 4 wickets by the intense bowling attacks from Shaheen Afridi and Mir Hamza. Their bowling could have caused havoc on the hosts.
However, Mitchell Marsh and Steve Smith led the hosts to 4- 115 runs where the former scored 63* runs before the lunch break.
Hamza was on a hat-trick after he dismissed Warner for 6 and Travis Head for a duck in consecutive balls to restrict Australia to 4/16
“This was a big, big opportunity … this might be the difference between winning and losing this game,” said Pakistan legend Waqar Younis
“Pakistan fought so, so hard through all of this match and that catch might cost them this match.”
Earlier the skipper Pat Cummins took his 10th five-wicket haul in Tests to end Pakistan innings at Melbourne. He grabbed two wickets on Thursday morning to finish his tenth five-wicket haul with the figures of 5-48.
After resuming their batting on the third day with 194/6, Pakistan showed more resistance after starting their third day in the Melbourne Test but were dismissed for 264.
Cummins had support from star spinner Nathan Lyon who has the fifth most Test scalps and awaits to enter 500-wicket club during the first Test in Perth. The fast-bowling skipper has raced to 247 career scalps from 57 Test.
Cummins and Mitchell Starc have the best strike rate among the Australian bowlers who have taken more than 100 Test wickets.
