Heroics from Mohammad Rizwan (88) & Aamer Jamal (82) rescue Pakistan (313) on Day 1 of the 3rd Test against Australia (6/0)

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Jamal's three test is better than Shan+Imam+Abdullah's whole career.
Shan is good, only Pak top order batsman to fight here, good captain. And I remember him scoring a 150 in England, Pak should have won that test.
 
I was yelling at our selectors to play this guy in the last t20 WC. And people were saying he’s bits and pieces, Wasim Jr was better etc.

Won’t forgive Babar for dropping him after he defended 11 runs or whatever from a rampaging and eventual t20 world champions England. Imagine the damage he could’ve done with the bat as well.

Did absolutely nothing to be dropped back then. That too after a match winning performance in one of those games.

He was hitting big in domestic t20s then too.

Sigh… hopefully this year he will play.
 
Jamal's three test is better than Shan+Imam+Abdullah's whole career.

Seriously? Have people forgotten some of the amazing knocks Abdullah has played in his career? Here is a brief rundown:

- Abdullah played an epic 160 not out on day 5 vs SL in spinning conditions to complete an epic chase in 2022
- Double ton vs SL in 2023
- 96 vs Australia to help Pakistan draw a losing match and survive for tons of overs

A shame there are so many ungrateful fans.
 
I was yelling at our selectors to play this guy in the last t20 WC. And people were saying he’s bits and pieces, Wasim Jr was better etc.

Won’t forgive Babar for dropping him after he defended 11 runs or whatever from a rampaging and eventual t20 world champions England. Imagine the damage he could’ve done with the bat as well.

Did absolutely nothing to be dropped back then. That too after a match winning performance in one of those games.

He was hitting big in domestic t20s then too.

Sigh… hopefully this year he will play.
I didn't know anything about him until this Test series.. so impressed by his batting.

The reverse hit for 6 makes me feel like he certainly should be getting chances in our T20 and ODI sides.
 
Seriously? Have people forgotten some of the amazing knocks Abdullah has played in his career? Here is a brief rundown:

- Abdullah played an epic 160 not out on day 5 vs SL in spinning conditions to complete an epic chase in 2022
- Double ton vs SL in 2023
- 96 vs Australia to help Pakistan draw a losing match and survive for tons of overs

A shame there are so many ungrateful fans.
Yeah Abdullah Shafique is one for the future. He has been great in his short career so far and one of our better batsmen on this tour as well.
 
Hazlewood at 33 and Starc at 34 have really shown signs of decline . Even the likes of Wasim Akram declined by the time he was 32. Not every bowler can sustain bowling peak until 35 like McGrath. Australia really need to ease their replacements in beginning with the West Indies series.
Next in line is also of similar age, Boland.

They need to induct Morris in so that he can settle into the side gradually.

From next Australian summer, I think Australia needs to follow the rotation policy of England ; not play Starc/Hazelwood in every match together. Rotate them with likes of Morris/Boland/J Richardson.
 
This series could easily have been 1-1 if Babar did not play like a passenger in the previous two matches. Players like Hamza and Jamal have played like warriors and have shown great character, but on the other end our senior players have been pathetic and acted like they did not care much about winning this series.
 
This is good cricket. Always entertaining to watch this kinda partnership.
 
What a knock by Jamal. He's only had two scores above 50 in FC too. So this is quite a knock from him. He's pulling a Yasir Shah from 2019 except with actual proper technique.

A cricket board with common sense would have batted him higher in domestic to really give him the opportunities to be a better batsmen so he could be developed as a true all-rounder across formats.
 
A proper world class pace allrounder after so long…

Feels like decades since we had Razzaq and Azhar Mehmood.
 
Epic stuff from Jamal. Nice to see Lyon being smashed around.

It actually annoys me a bowler like Lyon has 500+ wickets.
 
This series could easily have been 1-1 if Babar did not play like a passenger in the previous two matches. Players like Hamza and Jamal have played like warriors and have shown great character, but on the other end our senior players have been pathetic and acted like they did not care much about winning this series.
Some contribution from Babar & Saud would have definitely changed the result of this series. Babar has been a main disaster in this series considering the celebrity status he is enjoying since years.
 
Jamal single handedly frustrated Australia oh no gone He deserve hundred
 
Shan is good, only Pak top order batsman to fight here, good captain. And I remember him scoring a 150 in England, Pak should have won that test.
Yes Manchester test! Another heart breaker as a Pakistani fan.
Poor and timid captaincy from Azhar Ali cost us a sure shot win. Got worried about Woakes and Buttler's onslaught against Yasir when there were still more than 120 runs were left. Yasir had been the biggest wicket taker in that match. Removed him from the attack at that point and didn't bring him until 50 runs were left.

Didnt target Woakes with the short ones when every one knows how weak he's against short pitch barrage.
 
313 from 47/4… We’ll take it.

Also hard to believe this is Warner’s last test man. Feels like yesterday whenever he was amassing those runs in 2014-15
 
Great comeback from Pakistan with credit going to Jamal who's given us a fighting chance.
Would say Australia still have the advantage but not by too much.
 
Decent day for pakistan could have been way better if shan Rizwan shafique haven't thrown away wickets but tomorrow morning session will be very crucial
 
Australia will score 450+ in 1st innings .this is good batting pitch .long work ahead for Pakistan Bowlers
It is but even on first day some balls are starting to turn and bounce. I wish abrar was fit and playing here. I have hope that bowlers will do well
 
What a fantastic day's play

Wickets/Runs/Drama!

and Pakistan reasonably placed

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Australia still has the upper hand as this pitch has some support for batters as well.
 
If Pakistan doesn't find swing Australia is likely to bat Pakistan out of the match. Australia has 18 centuries at the SCG in the last 10 years (11 tests).
 
Has been an entertaining series so far despite the score line. Hopefully we get one over this match.

Bad day for Sarfraz and Faheem fanclubs.
 
Aamir leads Pakistan rearguard that keeps Warner waiting

A stunning fightback Pakistan's No.9 Aamir Jamal struck a brilliant 82 to lift the visitors and frustrate the Aussies

A near-record last-wicket stand by unlikely pair Aamir Jamal and Mir Hamza not only pushed Pakistan to a first innings total that seemed beyond after a horrific early collapse, but ensured David Warner's farewell was reduced to a three-minute end-of-day cameo.

Aamir contributed all but seven to the pair's 86-run last-gasp stand, ending a stunning counter-punch with 82 from 97 balls which represented his highest score in any format of senior cricket after another stellar five-wicket haul from Australia skipper Pat Cummins threatened a one-sided contest.

Cummins' 5-61 was his third five-wicket haul in as many innings, the first Australia bowler to claim that feat since Nathan Lyon in Bangladesh in 2017 with the late Shane Warne the most recent to record four such hauls in a row (in his comeback from suspension in Sri Lanka 20 years ago).

But the captain's heroics were almost overshadowed by the audacious fightback from Pakistan's last pair who came within a run of Pakistan's best last-wicket effort against Australia which was Asif Iqbal and Iqbal Qasim's 87 at Adelaide in 1976.

The final-wicket defiance meant Australia's opening pair needed to face just one over prior to stumps – sent down by off-spinner Sajid Khan – from which Warner struck a sweetly timed cover drive for four before almost squeezing the penultimate delivery on to his stumps.

Warner remained unbeaten on six and will resume his eagerly awaited innings tomorrow with his team 307 in arrears and facing more of a challenge than seemed likely midway through today.

A defiant 88 from Mohammed Rizwan provided the first plank of Pakistan's fightback, before Aamir – whose previous first-class best in a five-year career was 80no – took to Australia's shellshocked bowlers with a boundary blitz late in the day.

The 27-year-old clubbed eight boundaries in addition to five sixes, the most impressive of which was a reverse sweep from Lyon's bowling that cleared the fence in front of the SCG's Brewongle Stand.

It was one of two late-innings rallies staged by Pakistan the other coming when Rizwan and Salman Ali Agha helped themselves to 94 from just 101 balls faced for the sixth-wicket, a union that forced Australia to drastically revise their strategy.

As that pair piled on runs at more than five an over between lunch and tea, as the ball became softer and the SCG pitch revealed itself to be the slowest of the Test summer to date, it became clear there was little value in the seamers looking for assistance from the surface.

As a result, Australia entered the final session deploying the bouncer blueprint that had brought them success on the final day at the MCG where they secured victory late on day four amid a clatter of wickets.

The plan brought the prized scalp of Rizwan who had seemed set to become the first Pakistan keeper-batter to post a Test century in Australia until he fell for the trap on 88.

Having started his innings with a rush – his first boundary was an audacious swipe that sent Josh Hazlewood beyond the backward square leg boundary – Rizwan was then slowed to a crawl before he and Salman found their stride after lunch.

But just as history beckoned, he attempted to paddle a Cummins bouncer behind square with the resultant top edge neatly taken by Hazlewood tumbling forward at fine leg.

With Pakistan 6-190 and their tail having showed little willingness to dig in during their Melbourne collapse where they coughed up 4-18 in the final half hour, the departure of Rizwan surely meant the arrival of Warner in the gathering gloom.

But Aamir's belligerent ball-striking coupled with Hamza's dutiful defence not only frustrated Australia for an hour and a half, it subdued the fans who had grown in expectation of an evening Warner cameo.

The crowd of more than 20,000 in place for the game's start – which grew to almost 34,000 as the day progressed – might have initially been hoping to see the opener bat in his farewell Test, but any disappointment did not linger long.

Within eight deliveries, Pakistan lost both openers as Mitchell Starc and Josh Hazlewood started 2024 in the most ruthlessly effective manner.

Starc remarkable ability to strike in the opening over of whatever format he's playing did for Abdullah Shafique who pushed unnecessarily at a full ball angled across the right-hander that was obligingly edged to slip.

If the loss of their experienced opener to a self-inflicted wound was a setback, Hazlewood's removal of debutant Saim Ayub next over represented a calamity.

Saim's international experience prior to today was the eight T20 Internationals he's played over the past 10 months, but the 21-year-old could point to a first-class average of almost 50 as proof of his red-ball credentials.

He can also cite the textbook forward defence he offered to Hazlewood's opening delivery as further evidence of his Test potential, and it's safe to say batters of far greater experience would have found the Australia seamer's follow-up ball tough to negotiate.

Hazlewood landed his second offering slightly fuller and had it nip away off the scrambled seam and the young left-hander was leaden-footed as he leaned towards the ball and nicked low to keeper Alex Carey.

It was the first time since 1981-82 that both openers had fallen for ducks at a Test in Australia, and the previous occurrence also involved Pakistan when Mudassar Nazar and Rizwan-ur-Zaman fell to Dennis Lillee and Terry Alderman at the WACA Ground.

More worryingly for Saim who replaced Imam-ul-Haq at the top of the batting order for this match, the last Pakistan opener to record a duck in his maiden innings was Naved Latif against the West Indies at Sharjah in 2001 in what proved his final Test.

Following the comprehensive failure of their new-look opening duo, Pakistan's hopes again fell to their best batting hopes, skipper Shan Masood and his captaincy predecessor Babar Azam.

But that union also proved shortlived when Cummins slipped his increasingly lethal inswinger through Babar's defence and his canny review of umpire Michael Gough's decision saw the Australians' confident lbw shout belatedly upheld.

Saud Shakeel entered this series holding a record run of consistent Test scores that yielded an average above 80 and no score below 22 in 13 consecutive knocks from debut on the spin-friendly surfaces of Pakistan and Sri Lanka.

On the fast, bouncy tracks of Australia Shakeel has been found wanting with his shortcoming never more evident than during his 20-minute stay today.

The left-hander's troubles started when struck a stinging blow on the right shoulder after he ducked into a brutish bouncer from Cummins, and required medical attention that further dented the glacial over rate of the opening session.

His obvious discomfort against short-pitched bowling saw Cummins deploy fielders either side of the square-leg umpire in an obvious signal more bouncers were forthcoming, and then suckered Shakeel into pushing limply at a full delivery that took the edge.

At 4-47 barely an hour into the day, organisers of the annual Jane McGrath Day that begins on the third morning were quietly hoping for a Pakistan fightback that would ensure the game extended that far.

The resistance came initially from Shan, his team's most impressive batter on this tour having started with a double century at Manuka Oval, before being taken up at a far more urgent pace by Rizwan.

Shan's innings should have ended immediately after lunch when Cummins turned to allrounder Mitch Marsh who – with his fourth delivery of the match – induced a lazy late cut from the Pakistan captain that was guided neatly to Steve Smith at second slip.

However, Marsh's celebrations at his growing skills as a partnership[ breaker were quelled when it was revealed he had overstepped thereby allowing Shan to continue his innings on 32.

The lesson he leaned from that reprieve clearly didn't sink in because just three runs later he again pushed forward to Marsh and once more edged to Smith at slip and this time the wicket stood.

Without the enterprising sixth-wicket stand between Rizwan and Salman, the scoreline for Pakistan after they opted to bat first would have been decidedly abject on a pitch that proved surprisingly sluggish.

However, after both batters fell for the loudly-telegraphed short-bowling ploy, the tail succumbed in a manner hauntingly similar to last week's chaotic final hour at the MCG until Aamir found willing support from No.11 Mir Hamza.

The short-pitch ploy had put paid to recalled spinner Sajid Khan who was dropped on six when Khawaja failed to grasp a low chance at gully off Marsh shortly before tea but went soon after when he tamely pulled Cummins to mid-wicket.

It proved a carbon copy of Salman's wicket, with the allrounder tugging a catch to the leg side off Starc in the over after he posted his second consecutive half-century with this one arriving off a breezy 64 balls that were laced with eight boundaries.

When Cummins induced a fourth successive wicket from short-pitched bowling – Hasan Ali helping a bouncer into the hands of Starc on the fine leg fence – his latest five-wicket bag seemed the prelude to another definitive Australia bowling effort.

But Aamir's stoic last hurrah with Hamza in dogged, if almost silent support added a late twist that ensured Warner's arrival on centre stage came against a suitably dramatic backdrop.

SOURCE: CRICKET.COM.AU​
 
Next in line is also of similar age, Boland.

They need to induct Morris in so that he can settle into the side gradually.

From next Australian summer, I think Australia needs to follow the rotation policy of England ; not play Starc/Hazelwood in every match together. Rotate them with likes of Morris/Boland/J Richardson.
Yeah Boland is not young either. Richardson and Morris and Buckingham or whoever they have need to be blooded in.
 
Dont think anyone would've guessed that Pakistan would be nearly this competitive in Australia
 
I will be happy if we can feature on this list again without losing!

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