Melbourne: Australia beat Pakistan in the second Test by 79 runs in Melbourne to clinch the three-match Test series. Australia take an unassailable 2-0 lead in the series after the win today.
Chasing a target of 317 runs, Pakistan were dismissed for 237 in their second innings on Friday.
A fired-up Pat Cummins bagged five wickets and 10 for the match to lead from the front and earn Australia a nail-biting win. The right-armer also bagged the Player of the Match award.
Mitchell Starc also bagged four wickets in the second innings.
After bowling Australia out for 262 before lunch earlier today, the tourists had put together a series of partnerships to frustrate the home side.
Captain Shan Masood top-scored for Pakistan with an impressive 60 runs in 71 balls, with the help of seven fours.
Mohammad Rizwan and Agha Salman added 57 runs for the sixth wicket to get Pakistan close to victory. However, Australia took a flurry of wickets after Rizwan’s controversial dismissal to get over the line.
Cummins appealed for a caught behind in the 61st over of Pakistan’s second innings but the umpire gave it not out. However, the Australia captain decided to review the decision as he thought Rizwan might have gloved it.
After the third umpire took a look at the appeal from different angles and reckoned that there was a spike as the ball passed the wrist band so the on-field umpire was asked to change his decision.
However, the hotspot showed no mark as Rizwan looked away from the ball at the last second. Rizwan, who was sure that he didn’t get anything on it, went back to the hut in utter disbelief.
Rizwan was batting on 35 runs, with Pakistan 98 runs away from victory, when the incident took place.
Agha Salman also scored a fifty but it was in vain.
Babar Azam looked good for his 41 but he was cleaned up by Josh Hazlewood just when he seemed set for a big one.
The 29-year-old is not having a great year, particularly in red-ball cricket as he has now gone nine innings without scoring a Test fifty in 2023. It happened for the first time since his debut that Azam failed to bag a single half-century in a calendar year.
Pakistan have performed poorly in Australia, losing 16 Tests on the trot with their last win in 1995.
The third and final Test of the series will be played in Sydney from January 3.
