Smith reached his fourth Test hundred of the year before a storm lashed the Melbourne Cricket Ground just before tea and forced the rest of the fourth day’s play to be abandoned.
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The second Test between Australia and Pakistan is perched at that frustrating juncture of Test cricket; where the match appears to be petering out into an inevitable draw.
Pakistan opener Azhar Ali, who hit a classy double-ton in their first innings, suffered a brutal blow to the head on the fourth day of Boxing Day Test against Australia at Melbourne on Thursday.
Steve Smith’s men began the day hunting for quick wickets but hours later it was the home team making the first move off the field when the rain returned.
Lyon has just taken nine wickets this summer and was hammered all over the park by the Pakistani lower order on Day three of the Boxing Day Test.
Is Nathan Lyon’s time in the Australian team over, or does he have more to give to the Test side? A drawn series would be enough for them to retain the nameless trophy after winning in the Middle East in 2014. “It’s going to be about summing it up and seeing where they’re at after this Test match”.
Nic Maddinson has yet to fire with the bat in his Test career.
“The second game I was probably more disappointed with my shot”.
“I think Steve Smith might have talked the umpires into going off because of a light drizzle and he wanted the second new ball”.
“I didn’t realise they’d only bowled 58 overs”, added Warner. “I thought that was an opportunity to score big runs on a good wicket, the ball was slightly older as well”, Wade said.
With this game heading to a stalemate the focus has already shifted to Sydney where the third one will be played. In the process, he also became the seventh batsman and the third skipper after Virat Kohli and Alastair Cook to go past 1000 runs in 2016.
“He wanted to score a century and see his name on the board at the MCG”.
“They’ve actually blunted that attack quite well”.
“They ll be sore, for sure, but it depends on how significant those little things are and the risks associated with it”, team sports medicine manager Alex Kountouris said.
Ali was extremely pleased.
Pakistan (from): Azhar Ali, Sami Aslam, Babar Azam, Younis Khan, Misbah-ul-Haq (capt), Asad Shafiq, Sarfraz Ahmed, Wahab Riaz, Yasir Shah, Mohammad Amir, Rahat Ali, Sohail Khan, Imran Khan.
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Though wickets were falling at the other end on a consistent basis, he was not ruffled with that and Ali continued scoring runs with decent ease.
