AUS vs PAK 2nd Test Match Report: Even though Pat Cummins had had plenty of incredible moments to savor for life in 2023, the concluding moments of the year for him on the cricket field—in a Test match against Pakistan in Melbourne, which Australia were expected to win even before Pakistan arrived on their shores—will have a special place in his memory.
Cummins became only the second Australian captain to take 10 wickets in a Test match, after Allan Border in 1989, and the first Aussie skipper to take two five-wicket hauls in a Test. But it’s not the numbers that will go down in the folklore; it would be his initiative to take the ball every time Australia needed a breakthrough and the execution of providing it for his side.
AUS vs PAK 2nd Test Match Report:
Under a new pitch curator, it was a much spicier MCG surface than what had been here for the past six years. Pakistan won the toss and elected to bowl first. Pakistan produced a much better collective bowling show in this Test across two innings than they did in the first Test in Perth.
4 of Australia’s top six batters got starts, scoring over 30, but none of them could go past 70. A total of 318 seemed par for the surface. In Pakistan’s first innings, while Imam-ul-Haq got out cheaply, Abdullah Shafique and skipper Shan Masood batted impressively for their half-centuries.
But at 124/1, Cummins changed the momentum with a terrific catch and bowl of Shafique before knocking over Babar Azam with a sensational in-seaming delivery. That got Australia the opening they needed as Cummins, Hazlewood, and Lyon pounced on it to bowl Pakistan out for 264.
CHECK OUT:
It was a crucial 54-run lead that Australia got. But the Pakistani pacers were charged up in the second outing and got the hosts tottering at 16/4, with left-arm pacer Mir Hamza castling Warner and Head on consecutive deliveries.
It could have been 46/5, but Shafique dropped a sitter at the first slip of Marsh, which proved too costly for Pakistan. Marsh went on to score 96, Smith scored 50, and Carey scored 53 as Australia set Pakistan a target of 317.
According to the Australia vs Pakistan Report, Pakistan last defeated Australia in a Test in Australia in 1995. Only once has a target of over 300 been chased at the MCG, and that came 95 years ago. So as Masood and Babar recorded a partnership of 61 (72) for the third wicket, history awaited on the other side for Pakistan.
But Cummins happened again. The Aussie captain dismissed Masood, and then Hazlewood knocked over Babar in a similar fashion that Cummins did in the first innings.
A glimmer of hope rose again for Pakistan with the 57-run partnership between Rizwan and Agha Salman. With 98 runs needed and five wickets in hand, Pakistan believed and dreamed. But, as it happened in this Test match, Cummins broke the threatening p
artnership with Rizwan’s scalp. That triggered a collapse for Pakistan to lose their last 5 wickets in only 18 runs, losing the game and a shot at a historic win by 79 runs.
Also Read:
Get IPL 2024 Live Score & IPL 2024 Team Updates along with Latest Player News at IceCric.News and Follow for Live Updates – Twitter, Facebook & Instagram.
