If the first two days of the rain-affecting Melbourne Test were hardest on the fans who stuck around through prolonged rain delays, the swelteringly hot third pushed bowlers to the head of the complaints queue as first Azhar Ali and then Australian pair David Warner and Usman Khawaja mastered a docile pitch and feasted on runs.
Both bowling attacks should have been on danger money today. They toiled for a combined 411-3 from 83.1 overs and fulfilled a task you wouldn’t wish upon your worst enemy.
Azhar was the man of the hour, or the man of close to ten hours as it turned out, unhurriedly stroking his was to an undefeated 205 and helping his side to 443-9 when Pakistan captain Misbah-ul-Haq finally put the home side out of its misery. Undisturbed in 577 minutes at the crease, Azhar only briefly played second fiddle during a swashbuckling, run-a-ball cameo of 65 from from No9 Sohail Khan.
On 160 Azhar had already written himself into the history books by reaching the highest Test score by a Pakistani batsman on Australian soil. Unknowingly, Misbah called time on the first innings when its hero was three runs away from joining Arthur Mailey, Bob Cowper and Sarfraz Nawaz on the wall of the Melbourne Cricket Club’s nearby Percy Beames bar for posting the highest individual score among all touring Test men in history. For now, a giant scoreboard plate bearing “Richards 208” remains in place.
Play had started with another ominous rain delay but this time the elusive Melbourne sun finally came out, combining with intense humidity and a temperature of 37 degrees. Having resumed on 139 overnight, Azhar lost a partner early when Mohammad Amir edged behind off his hip to hand Mitchell Starc a consolation wicket. There followed a 118-run stand with Sohail, who biffed six boundaries and four sixes, thus contributing to Australia’s growing catalogue of late innings fades with the ball.
After play on day two the home side’s bowling coach David Saker said he feared injuries to his pacemen after their prolonged exertions. Today Starc only looked likely to crock his neck, so often was he craning it to watch Sohail’s sixes fly over his head at long-on. Nathan Lyon was the main victim in that respect. Nice Garry was quickly put on ice Garry, brutalised out of the attack on his way to 1-115 from 23 overs.
At the innings break after Pakistan’s declaration, Australian great Glenn McGrath was out in the middle of the ground hitting catches to youngsters, but his baton has most obviously been passed to his bowlalike Josh Hazlewood, who continued performing both the yeoman’s work and the strike bowling simultaneously to finish with 3-50 from 32.3 overs. Jackson Bird had peaked yesterday, it turned out, and ended up with 3-113 from 34 overs, while nominal spearhead Starc (1-125 from 31) looked utterly spent in the end.
To say Pakistan put in a flawed bowling performance and Misbah a head-scratching effort setting fields would be an understatement, and keeper Sarfraz Ahmed had a DRS moment to rival the best of Shane Watson’s cricket comedy. A review launched when David Warner fenced at a length ball from Amir was quickly shown to have missed the batsmen’s outside edge by the width of of an OLED TV.
Australia, who finished the day at 278-2 from 58 overs, lost Matthew Renshaw for 10 when the rookie opener made no contact while attempting a lavish slog-sweep and he could have no complaint after losing his off stump to the leg-spin of Yasir Shah. The latter struck early in his spell but otherwise bowled as badly as he’s likely to on this tour and finished with 1-97 from 16 overs, still managing to smile all the way though, as though even the most egregious of his full tosses were unplayable gems. It’s almost impossible to dislike a single element of his game.
Any hope that scoreboard pressure and the spectre of day five madness could be conjured by Pakistan’s bowlers was dispelled in the afternoon. Warner in particular carved into the bowling like leftover Christmas ham, rattling along to a century from 113 deliveries and only improving his strike rate thereafter to end up with 144, while Khawaja rode his momentum.
Warner’s 17th Test hundred was his second against Pakistan and his first at the MCG, and never failed to thrill. Not sheepish about bringing it up with a fortunate inside-edge to fine leg, he again punctuated his milestone with that rote leap in the air which so pleases Cricket Australia sponsors Toyota. The ICC, which still tightly regulates the size of logos at the base batting pads, remains silent on the issue of guerrilla marketing.
Warner finally went in the 49th over – fittingly within one-day international parameters – by thinly gloving Wahab down the leg side and into the hands of Sarfraz. Having started his departure before the decision had been made, the Australian vice-captain changed his mind halfway to the fence and briefly returned to the scene of the crime, like the most easily-fingered suspect of a murder mystery.
By then he’d shared a 198-run stand with Khawaja, whose undefeated 95 confirmed him as a stylist to rank with Mark Waugh and Greg Chappell in the annals of Australian batsmen. Even when he’s doing something innocuous, like knocking a single to fine leg the left-hander’s bat swishes around the corner like a muleta, taunting opponents. When he resumes with his captain tomorrow his sights might be set well beyond the benchmark established by Azhar.
