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After a rain-interrupted opening day of the Boxing Day Test, Australia’s batsmen will be thrown back onto a tricky wicket and with a long day ahead.
Marnus Labuschagne and Travis Head finished day one with Australia 3-187, with rain forcing an earlier start time on Wednesday (10am AEDT).
And Australian hall-of-fame batsman Michael Hussey believes it will remain a difficult batting track through day two. Follow our live coverage of play below.
10.37PM: MARSH SURVIVES ON DRS…. AGAIN!
Joel Wilson has given Mitch Marsh out the very next ball, Marsh again reviews and again the result is not out on review.
It looked like he was given caught behind but the ball clearly smashed into Marsh’s thigh pad which is where the noise came from.
Oh Joel.
“Joel Wilson having a shocker in my opinion,” says Wasim Akram on Fox Cricket.
10.36PM: MARSH SURVIVES ON DRS
Pakistan thought it had another huge blow with umpire Joel Wilson adjudging Mitch Marsh lbw.
Marsh sent a speculative review upstairs and replays indicated a huge inside edge.
It was going on to hit the stumps, so it’s a break for Marsh and the Aussies that he managed to get an edge on that one.
Pakistan players appear to be overheard on stump microphone saying “that’s not fair”.
“It’s not fair decision, (that’s what) I’ve heard,” says Wakim Akram in commentary.
On Channel 7, former Test umpire Simon Taufel says: “A really tough decision for Joel Wilson. A thin inside edge, a clear mark, a clear spot on hotspot, so that is conclusive. Occasionally, we don’t see a mark on hotspot, which is why we have the redundancy built into the protocols.
“So there are some very unique reasons why marks do not show up on the bat which is why we have the safety net provision of RTS available to the third umpire as well.”
10.18AM: WICKET! PAKISTAN STRIKE EARLY
Before most spectators have had a chance to take their seats, Pakistan has a wicket.
Shaheen Shah Afridi removes Travis Head for 17, caught by Salman, and Australia is 4-204.
Just in case you were in any doubt about the change in sentiment for Mitch Marsh, he gets a warm hand from the supporters who made their way to the MCG for the early start.
Remembering, it wasn’t that long ago the Melbourne crowd booed him.
“There is still enough there. You have to stay patient as a bowling group,” Ricky Ponting tells Channel 7.
“We talk about patience with batting all the time, but it’s equally important for the bowlers. Stay patient, try and build pressure, keep yourself in the game.
“If you go searching for wickets and you bowl a couple of bad balls an over, that’s all the best batsmen are looking for, looking for one little error ball an over that they can jump all over. That’s exactly what Travis Head does, if he gets the ball in the right area he’s a chance to get a catch behind the wicket.”
10.05AM: PLAY STARTS EARLY, MARNUS LOOKS TO CASH IN
After a lean return in the Perth Test – with scores of 16 and 2 – Marnus Labuschagne is looking to finish 2023 in the right fashion.
He grinded his way to stumps last night, resuming this morning on 44, and will be hoping for a pay-off in the form of just his second century of the year today.
Labuschagne notched a ton in a match-saving effort against England in the drawn Test in Manchester, but outside of that has failed to reach three figures since reaching the mark against the West Indies in Adelaide last year.
9.45AM: HUSSEY TIPS TOUGH DAY FOR BATSMEN
Mike Hussey has tipped a tough day for the batters in Melbourne on a pitch which should have more pace than day one.
Australia will resume on 3-187, with Marnus Labuschagne on 44 and Travis Head on 9 – and Hussey expects another hard slog with the bat after a day in which the hosts crawled along at under 3 runs an over.
“Expecting some more movement today,” Hussey said on Fox Cricket.
“There’s also a couple of little cracks opening up and that caused a little bit of variable bounce.
“Expect this pitch to quicken up a little bit today, so plenty of movement for the bowlers. The batsmen are going to have to work hard for their runs.”
9AM: PAKISTAN STARS EMBROILED IN FRESH SELECTION DRAMA
Melbourne Stars are increasingly resigned to losing Pakistani pair Haris Rauf and Usama Mir in a couple of days despite a bid to extend their stay in Australia until the new year.
Paceman Rauf and leg-spinner Mir are both with the struggling Big Bash League club but have only been granted no objection certificates (NOC)s from the Pakistan Cricket Board until December 28.
The Stars have applied to the PCB for the NOCs to be stretched until the first couple of days of January, which would allow the pair to feature in the Stars’ New Year’s Eve game against the Adelaide Strikers and derby against the Melbourne Renegades on January 2.
Mir and Rauf have both been included in Pakistan’s white-ball tour of New Zealand, which begins with a Twenty20 international in Auckland on January 12.
But the Stars are yet to be given the green light for an extension, meaning Rauf and Mir are likely to depart after the game against Hobart on Thursday night.
Club versus country tension is an evolving issue in cricket, with Aussie great Mike Hussey – who is involved with the Indian Premier League’s Chennai Super Kings – saying on Tuesday that he hoped international cricket retained its primacy.
“I hope we don’t go down the different model where it’s you play for your franchise or your different league team around the world and then every now and then come back and play for your country,” Hussey said.
“I love cricket being different in that we play for our country and that’s the pinnacle at the moment and then around that you can go and play in these leagues around the world. So I hope it remains that way. I don’t know if it will but that’s certainly my hope.”
Rauf’s involvement in the BBL this season had been controversial given he turned down the chance to play for Pakistan in the current Test series against Australia to play for the Stars instead.
Chief selector Wahab Riaz criticised Rauf’s decision last month.
“We spoke to Haris Rauf for this tour,” Wahab said.
“When we spoke to him two days ago, he gave his consent to play Test cricket for Pakistan. But last night he changed his mind, and now he doesn’t want to be part of this Test series. I’m revealing this because we should be honest with officials, teammates, and the public. We spoke to Haris and he was worried about his body and fitness, as well as his workload. Mohammad Hafeez and I sat with him and tried to facilitate him in every way. We told him even if he didn’t perform well there, we would accept it.
“Our physio spoke to him and said he wouldn’t expect any issue or injury. Of course there’s fatigue, but we were sure we could have managed that very well. But he pulled out at the last moment and he made himself unavailable. I think this will hurt Pakistan cricket.”
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