AUSTRALIA v PAKISTAN, Second Benaud-Qadir Trophy Test, MCG, Day Two.
SCORE: Australia 318 (Marnus Labuschagne 63, Aamir Jamal 3-64), Pakistan 6-194 (Abdullah Shafique 62, Pat Cummins 3-37).
SUMMARY: Australia lost 7-131 before lunch to be all out for 318 and became the first team since 2019 to post a total of more than 200 when batting first in the Boxing Day Test. Pakistan opener Abdullah Shafique (62) and captain Shan Masood (54) both hit half-centuries in reply, but Pat Cummins (3-37), Nathan Lyon (2-48) and Josh Hazlewood (1-29) put the hosts right back on top by stumps. Day two attracted 44,837 fans, taking the second Test attendance tally well past 100,000.
PLAYER OF THE MOMENT: Australian skipper Cummins claimed three important wickets in the final session, starting with a brilliant return catch to remove Shafique. Cummins also clean-bowled Babar Azam through the gate with a cracking delivery, removing the danger man for one, and then had Agha Salman caught behind.
STAT OF THE DAY: Mitchell Starc's brief innings of nine on Wednesday morning took him past 2000 runs for his Test career. It meant the left-arm paceman and tailender joined Richie Benaud, Shane Warne and Mitchell Johnson in an elite group of only four Australian players with 2000 runs and 200 wickets to their names in Test cricket.
QUOTE OF THE DAY: "Well bugger me - another modern first! I have never heard of a current player anointing their successor. What's wrong with 'that's a question for George Bailey not me'? I need a lie down…!" Former Australia Test selector Jamie Cox took to social media platform X, formerly known as Twitter, to express his dissatisfaction with David Warner publicly nominating Marcus Harris as his preferred replacement as opener when he retires after the Sydney Test.
