Saturday 27 / April / 2024
Perth: Following his side's 360-run loss to Australia in the first Test, Pakistan Test skipper Shan Masood said when the teams come to Australia, they look for progress in their game.
Shan's men failed to end Pakistan's Test win drought in Australia as they were beaten by the all-round brilliance of the hosts in the opening Test at Perth on Sunday.
"Look when you come to these shores, you look for progress. If you had told us that Australia would play 110 overs and we would play 100, I would have taken that. We could have scored quicker and 60-70 runs would have proved the difference in maybe keeping that lead to a sizeable level. Discipline is something we would take from the Australian attack. We took 15 wickets and need to aim for 20. It is never easy when you have two debutants in a four-seam attack. They have a first-class record, and they have a lot of overs under their belt. Aamer's (Jamal) pace was decent and Khurram's (Shahzad) accuracy was good. We will take the positives and they did decently well," Shan said at the post-match presentation.
After Australia won the toss and opted to take the first strike, a 126-run partnership between David Warner and Usman Khawaja (41 in 98 balls, with six fours) got the hosts off to a fine start.
Warner, in his swansong series in red-ball cricket, went on to bring up his 26th Test century, smashing 164 in 211 balls with 16 fours and four sixes. Building on the momentum, star all-rounder Mitchell Marsh (90 in 107 balls, with 15 fours and a six) along with valuable knocks from Travis Head (40 in 53 balls, with six fours), Alex Carey (34 in 73 balls, with four boundaries) and Steve Smith (31 in 60 balls, with four boundaries) helped Australia reach 487 in their first innings.
Aamer Jamal (6/111) was the pick of the bowlers for the visitors, taking six wickets in his debut Test. His fellow new-ball bowler Khurram Shehzad took two wickets while Shaheen Afridi and Faheem Ashraf got one scalp each.
Openers Abdullah Shafique (42 in 121 balls, with six fours) and Imam Ul Haq (62 in 199 balls, with five fours) were the top contributors with the willow for Pakistan, as they were bundled out for a modest 271 in their first innings, trailing the Baggy Greens by 216 runs.
Nathan Lyon (3/66) emerged as the top bowler for Australia while Mitchell Starc and Pat Cummins took two wickets. Marsh, Head and Josh Hazlewood also picked up a wicket each.
In their second innings, Australia declared at 233/5, securing a 449-run lead. Khawaja (90 in 190 balls, with nine fours) and Marsh (63 in 68 balls, with seven fours and two sixes) were the top contributors for the hosts.
Set a massive 450 runs to win, the visitors succumbed to scoreboard pressure and some quality bowling from Australia. Saud Shakeel (24) was the only Pakistani batter to score 20 or more runs as the Asian giants were skittled out for just 89 in 30.2 overs.
In a major career milestone, Lyon (2/14) got his 500th Test wicket while Starc (3/31) and Hazlewood (3/13) were the pick of the bowlers for the Aussies.
Australia leads the series 1-0 going into the Boxing Day Test.
Marsh won the 'Player of the Match' for his scores of 90 and 63* across both innings and taking a wicket.
