Australia vs Pakistan, Day 3 of First Test from Dubai

AUSTRALIA has once again thrown away a strong start with a horror middle-order collapse dousing hopes of a win in the first Test in the UAE.
Aaron Finch showed he was more than just a white-ball cricketer, scoring 62 before being dismissed by a sharp chance.
The wicket ended a 142-run opening stand and sparked a collapse which saw Australia lose all 10 wickets for just 60 more runs.
Former Australian fast bowler Brendan Julian slammed the Australians for the way they played, arguing conditions hadn’t changed too much since the early days.
“It’s not as if it’s keeping low, there has been a bit of reverse swing bowling, which is what the Australians got,” he said.
“Peter Siddle got it to reverse, Mitch Starc got it to reverse, I don’t think they got anything different than Pakistan got, they just played them badly.”
Bilal Asif was the chief destroyer with the 33-year-old Pakistani debutant taking 6/36.
Commentators praised Asif’s performance, but former legendary Australian captain Allan Border didn’t understand why Australia found it so difficult.
“It’s not spitting and turning, it’s turning a little bit,” Border said.
“To me it’s been a typical subcontinent pitch, maybe a bit slower than ideal right from the get-go, but it’s a lot better than some of the pitches I’ve seen recently in India where they basically turn right from the first ball. This one gives you a chance as a batsman.”
Speaking in the tea break on Fox Sports, when Australia were 5/180, former Australian batsman and selector Mark Waugh said batting is hard work in Asia.
“That's what happens in the subcontinent, you’ve got to be very careful about losing both your set batsmen at the same time,” he said.
“When there are new batsmen at the crease, all of a sudden guys are searching for the ball and it’s a different ball game. Give credit to the Pakistani bowlers and yes, there were some naive shots from our middle-order players.”
John Hastings said Australia needed to show a bit of patience.
“It is hard to start and the ball is starting to turn, but for me it was big shots early in the innings,” he said.
“Maybe just soak up a tiny bit of the pressure. It is easy for me sitting here of course, but if you can just soak up as much of the pressure as you can, maybe get to 10, 15, 20 balls faced and then you might be able to start driving at balls that are hitting out of the rough.”

Hasting conceded Bilal had been successful because of his bounce and spin but asked the Australian batsmen to build into the innings.



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Live score — 3rd session
Pakistan 3-45 (Imam 23*) off 16.2 overs
Australia 202
Pakistan 482 all out
Australia trail by 325 runs
12.10pm
Australia finish with a positive
With Pakistan already over 300 runs ahead, Australia needed early wickets and John Holland was the man.
A leading edge hit silly mid-off Marnus Labuschagne in the stomach with the young Queenslander holding onto the catch.
He’s now got a catch, a run out and wicket all before he’s scored his first run, no mean feat for a batsman.
Nathan Lyon came on from the other end and got the wicket of Bilal Asif, caught by Travis Head.
Holland then wrapped up the day with Australia overturning an LBW decision to dismiss Azhar Ali and end the day four balls early with Pakistan 3/45 in the second innings.

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