Melbourne: Australia put themselves in a strong position by the end of the second day of the second Test match at the Melbourne Cricket Ground on Wednesday against Pakistan reducing the visitors to 194 for 6.
Earlier in the day, Marnus Labuschagne completed his fifty and constructed a knock of 61 runs before being sent back to the pavilion by Aamer Jamal. After his departure wickets kept falling from one end but Mitchell Marsh showed some resilience to score 41 runs and was the sole batter to score in double digits amongst the last six batters. His knock played a key role in helping Australia cross the 300-run mark and they were able to pile up a total of 318 on the scoreboard.
Aamer Jamal shined with the ball for the visitors as he took three wickets while the trio of Hasan Ali, Mir Hamza, Shaheen Afridi dismissed two batters each.
Pakistan lost their first wicket early in the reply but Abdullah Shafique and Shan Masood joined forces to form a 90-run partnership for the third wicket. Shafique scored 62 runs while Masood carved a knock of 54 runs from 76 balls. However, the departure of Shafique back to the pavilion opened the floodgates and Australian bowlers sent back half the batting unit back in the hut. Pat Cummins took three wickets while Nathan Lyon ensured a couple of wickets in the fixture. An impressive spell from the Australian bowlers in the end put Pakistan into trouble and the duo of Mohammed Rizwan and Aamer Jamal will have the responsibility to script a recovery on their shoulders.
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