- Urdu report is attached here
Lahore, 23 November 2019: Marnus Labuschagne’s maiden Test century and early blows by Mitch Starc and Pat Cummins in Pakistan’s second innings had Australia eyeing 1-0 lead at the close of third day’s play.
Australia continued their domination over Pakistan on day three of the first Test at Gabba, Brisbane, as the hosts amassed a whopping first innings lead of 340 runs as they made 580 all-out in reply of Pakistan’s meagre 240.
In their second innings, Pakistan had lost three wickets for 64 runs in 17 overs when stumps were called.
Labuschagne led the Aussies with the bat scoring 185 runs from 279 balls. The right-handed batsman hit 20 fours during his stay at the crease before he was removed by Shaheen Afridi early in the evening session.
Matthew Wade scored a 97-ball 60 as he swept – both conventional and reverse – the Pakistan spinners to nullify the impact of the turn. The middle-order batsman smashed seven fours and a six.
The platform to set a profound first innings score was provided by the opening pair of David Warner and Joe Burns on Day Two. Warner recorded his first century in Test cricket after serving his ban with a classy 154 off 296, hitting 10 fours, while Joe Burns fell just three runs short of his fifth Test century.
For Pakistan, Yasir Shah took the most wickets as he dismissed four Australian batsmen. The leg-spinner returned four for 205, bowling 48.4 overs. Shaheen and Haris Sohail picked up two wickets each for 96 and 75 runs respectively.
Pakistan lost three quick wickets inside the first seven overs and were reeling at 25 for three as Starc accounted for the wickets of Pakistan captain Azhar Ali (five) and Haris Sohail (eight).
Cummins dismissed Asad Shafiq, who failed to open his account and was best scorer for the tourists in the previous innings, amplifying troubles for Pakistan.
Shan Masood (27 not out) and Babar Azam (20 not out) weathered the storm and denied any further inroads to the Australian bowlers.
When Pakistan resume their innings on Day Four, they will have a mammoth task at their hands of surmounting the 276-run trail with seven wickets in hand.
