On the second day of the first Test against Pakistan in Perth, Mitch Marsh came close to scoring a century in his hometown, falling just 10 runs short. Meanwhile, Nathan Lyon made progress towards reaching his own significant milestone.

On Friday after lunch, Khurram Shahzad bowled Marsh (90 off 107 balls) on the first ball, concluding an inning with 15 fours and one six.

Pat Cummins (9) and Nathan Lyon (5) were dismissed shortly afterwards, resulting in Australia losing three wickets quickly and being bowled out for a total of 487. This occurred in front of a crowd of 17,666 at Optus Stadium.

Aamir Jamal, a paceman for Pakistan, stood out among the bowlers with 6-111 in his unforgettable Test debut.

Imam-ul-Haq remained undefeated at 38 runs and nightwatchman Shahzad also stayed at the crease as Pakistan responded to Australia’s first-innings score of 132-2 by the end of the day’s play.

The possibility of a collapse in the top order for Pakistan was dispelled when Abdullah Shafique and ul-Haq joined forces for a slow and careful 74-run opening partnership.

Mitchell Starc, Pat Cummins, and Josh Hazlewood, Australia’s fast bowlers, consistently challenged the batsmen with their deliveries. However, it was Nathan Lyon who ultimately took the first wicket in the 37th over.

Shafique was the initial player to be out, aggressively running towards the pitch but only deflecting Lyon’s delivery to David Warner at slip for a score of 42.

Lyon has just achieved Test wicket number 497, putting him close to reaching the same milestone as Shane Warne and Glenn McGrath, who are the only other Australians to have surpassed 500 wickets.

Starc claimed the key scalp of Pakistan skipper Shan Masood (30) just 13 minutes before stumps when Australia successfully reviewed a caught behind appeal that had been initially turned down.

At the beginning of the day, the hosts were in a strong position at 346-5 thanks to David Warner’s impressive score of 164 on Thursday.

The knock almost certainly secured Warner’s spot in his scheduled retirement Test in Sydney in January.

On Friday, Jamal confidently stated that his team would be able to successfully dismiss the Australian team in just one hour.

The 27-year-old had to wait for 56 minutes before receiving the ball on the second day. At that point, Australia had scored 60 runs without losing any wickets.

Although Jamal’s prediction of taking five wickets from Australia in just one hour did not come true, he did manage to deliver a powerful 138kmh ball on his sixth attempt, causing Alex Carey’s off stump to shake.

He earned his fourth wicket when another excellent delivery hit the outside edge of Starc’s bat and knocked into the stumps.

Marsh was nearly dismissed on 81 after a miscommunication with Cummins, but Shaheen Afridi narrowly missed hitting the stumps from a side angle.

Marsh’s momentum was interrupted during lunchtime when he attempted a drive after the break. However, his decision backfired as Shahzad’s delivery curved off the seam and hit the top of the middle stump.

The Australian team’s batting ended 20 minutes later when both Cummins and Lyon were caught out by Jamal and sent to the slip.

Jamal let out a loud cheer and planted a kiss on the Optus Stadium field after taking down the Australian team’s leader for his fifth wicket.

This was the initial instance where a foreign player achieved a five-wicket haul on their debut in Australia, since Abid Ali from India took 6-55 at Adelaide Oval in 1967.

Source: theguardian.com