Pakistan, Australia third Test starts today
The third and final Test between Pakistan and Australia will start in Sydney today.
SYDNEY (Dunya News/Agencies) - The third and final Test between Pakistan and Australia will start in Sydney today (Tuesday). The match will start at 4:30am (PST).
Australia have completed their return to form after a dismal start to the summer against the South African side, where they had lost the three-match series themselves across the first two.
It hasn’t been all one way traffic for the Australians, with a few interesting situations presented throughout the series, but they have been the dominant team nonetheless.
The first Test in Brisbane saw them run away with a massive first innings lead, putting themselves into what looked like a position where they simply wouldn’t be able to lose the match.
Setting Pakistan 490 for victory after a decision was made not to enforce the follow-on, their bowlers couldn’t take the wickets required to ensure the big victory that looked so comfortable earlier in the match.
The tourists were eventually knocked over for a massive 450, just 40 short of the target on the back of a big Asad Shafiq century and strong effort from the tail.
Moving onto Melbourne, back into red-ball, day time cricket and it would be the weather that played the staring role for the first four days of the match.
Each of the first four days were taken hostage by the weather, limiting the play and ensuring that the first innings would still be going into Day 5.
Pakistan, after winning the toss batted into Day 3 for their first innings with Azhar Ali leading the way with a big double century.
At that point, with more rain on the way the only possible result looked like a draw so long as Australia batted well enough.
Instead though, David Warner came out and made a blazing run-a-ball century with Usman Khawaja also pushing the pace, having Australia at close to five runs per over by the end of Day 3.
While rain would again interrupt Day 4, Steve Smith got to stumps with a century and still not out at the crease, handing Australia a slender lead and the match still heading for the draw.
Mitchell Starc had other ideas though as he blasted an MCG record seven sixes, putting Australia in front by 181 runs when they declared on 624.
It left them with just 68 overs to knock Pakistan over, who couldn’t win the match from their position – but they shouldn’t have found a way to lose it either.
Poor shots, bad options and lapses in concentration saw things get tight though with Nathan Lyon taking a couple of wickets before Mitchell Starc ran through the tail with some wonderful reverse swing bowling.
Pakistan will be crushed after the loss in Melbourne and whether they can turn it around for Sydney with no series left to play for poses plenty of questions.
Dead rubbers often throw up some weird old results, but this doesn’t appear to be one of them with the Australian’s all over them throughout the series and spots on the line for India with a few squad changes.
The hosts most underperforming player Nic Maddinson has been cut from the squad, along with former 12th man Chadd Sayers, which has paved the way for spinners Ashton Agar and Stephen O’Keefe to join the fold with Hilton Cartwright retaining his spot in the 13-man squad.
Pakistan haven’t been without their own squad conjecture this week, rumours abound that captain Misbah-ul-Haq would retire, but they haven’t come to fruition at this point.
