Australia Excels on Days Three and Four to Beat Pakistan in Test One

Australia throttles Pakistan by 360 runs in first test of series as the bats and bowlers both starred.

It was always going to take a remarkable showing from Pakistan to chase down Australia after the Aussies batted for 487 in their first innings. They had some momentum to begin day three but were quickly shut down by the Aussie bowling attack as the home team would glide to a 360-run victory.   

Day Three Recap  

Pakistan came into day three with a bit of life thanks to a strong show of batting from the top of their order in the second half of day two. Pakistan had worked their way to 132-2 as they hunted Australia’s daunting 487.  
 
Because of this, it was vital for Australia’s bowlers to come out with their best stuff to begin day three. 
 
It was Pat Cummins with ball in hand first and he got the Australians off to the start they needed taking the wickets of Shahzad with just the third ball of the day.  
 
Pakistan then settled in for 15 overs and slowly added runs on the board. The duo of Imam ul-Haq and Babar Azam worked their way to 181 before Azam sent a Mitchell Marsh bowl into the hands of Alex Carey.  
 
Then came an Australian bowling onslaught that was simply too much for Pakistan to handle. Some five overs and just 11 runs later Pakistan was down another wicket this time from the bowling of Nathan Lyon. 
 
The very next over saw Mitchell Starc get in on the action blowing up Sarfaraz Ahmed’s stumps to keep Pakistan at just 193-6.  
 
Pakistan showed fight and certainly did not give up easy but the quality of Australian bowling was just too much for them to handle as they were only able to muster 271, trailing by 216 runs.  
 
Australia did not have the booming start to their second batting innings that they would have liked. Day one’s centurion David Warner exited for a duck as he sent a ball to midwicket which was caught by Imam.  
 
Marnus Labuschagne then managed only two runs before suffering the same fate as Australia was at 5-2. It was Usman Khawaja and Steve Smith that would steady the ship for Australia as the pair went unbeaten till the end of the day at 84-2.  

Day Four Recap 

Australia was in firm control of the test by day four’s beginning but still had to see the match to its finish line.  
 
Steve Smith was quickly found out after a DRS review in just the fourth over of the day. Not long after, Travis Head was dismissed early with just 14 runs as Australia were at 107-4.  
 
It was the Australian duo of Khawaja and Marsh who did all the heavy lifting in terms of batting on the day.  
 
The pair punished Pakistan’s bowlers and refused to make mistakes as they tacked on run after run. Khawaja ended up falling for 90 while Marsh finished on 63 not out when Cummins declared with his side at 233-5.  
 
With Pakistan needing 450, the match was all but over. Even so, Australia’s bowlers seemed hungry as ever and had an impressive showing.  
 
Mitchell Starc claimed his 200th test wicket in Australia in the first over and by the 15th, Australia had already taken four.  
 
Starc’s accomplishment was not the biggest on the day however as in the 28th over, Nathan Lyon drove a ball into Faheem Ashraf’s pad and after review it was deemed a wicket for the Aussie great. Not just any wicket however, but number 500 as Lyon joins Warne and McGrath as the only Australians to get to that number.  
 
He quickly claimed number 501 in the same over and it wasn’t long after that Pakistan were all out for 89 as Australia took the victory by 360 runs.

Australia dominated Pakistan in their opening test as aside from a bit of a faulty afternoon on day two, all four days belonged to the Aussies en route to their big 360-run win. The win saw also saw Nathan Lyon become the newest member of the 500-wicket club.