54th over: Australia 135-2 (Labuschagne 35, Smith 12) It’s a flood of runs as new bowled Sajid Khan shucks the rust with a wide one outside off stump that Labuschagne picks off for three. Smith bashes an on drive for a single. Sajid, a magniicently moustachioed allrounder from Pakhtunkhwa, has 22 wickets from his seven Tests so far but none in this Test so far. Labuschagne certainly likes what he sees of the 30-year-old tweaker, cover driving another loose one to the pink-fringed fence for four.
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Australia v Pakistan: third Test, day three – live
53rd over: Australia 126-2 (Labuschagne 28, Smith 11) Finally some runs! A Bronx cheer rings out from the pink masses in the crowd as 33 dot balls is broken by a flat bat push down the ground by Labuschagne and a scrambled run that shows even the batter’s feet have fallen asleep. Now Smith really jolts the crowd awake, rasping a cover drive to the boundary.
52nd over: Australia 121-2 (Labuschagne 27, Smith 7) Smith buckles! That second ball from Hasan hit a crack on a length and jagged back to hit Smith’s belt line. He folded in half before rising with a wry smile. Hasan shows some gamesmanship, going down to caress the crack in the pitch he reckons did the deed. A fifth consecutive maiden!
52nd over: Australia 121-2 (Labuschagne 27, Smith 7) Five overs, five runs so far this morning. This evenly poised Test is into a slow, tense grind. Australia are defending stoically, Pakistan are attacking skilfully. Both sides are refusing to blink. That’s another maiden by Hamza to Labuschagne, the fourth in succession for Pakistan.
51st over: Australia 121-2 (Labuschagne 27, Smith 7) Tempting fate, Pakistan have taken a slip fielder out and placed him at short leg instead. The cordon opens up to reveal the gaps David Warner found so fortuitously yesterday. Smith happy to play out another maiden.
50th over: Australia 121-2 (Labuschagne 27, Smith 7) Hamza enters his 12th over, just 16 runs from them. Labuschagne happy to leave this fifth/ sixth stump line for now, waiting for the one that wafts into his strike zone. Nothing doing though. Pakistan are picking up where they left off with probing accurate bowling on this dusty, slowly cracking SCG pitch.
49th over: Australia 121-2 (Labuschagne 27, Smith 7) Hasan Ali rolls in from the Randwick end to Smith who hippity-hops sideways across the crease to bat a skidding ball at 130kph back down the wicket. Five more stalemates ensue for a maiden.
48th over: Australia 121-2 (Labuschagne 27, Smith 7) Day three gets underway with Smith gliding Mir Hamza’s second ball for a single to short third man. Marnus Labuschagne raises the stakes, rolling his wrists on a straight ball and whipping it to the midwicket fence. Lovely shot by the Australian first drop. He looks a man on a mission today.
G’day cricket lovers and welcome back to the Sydney Cricket Ground for the third day of the third Test between Australia and Pakistan. Angus Fontaine here to shepherd you through the opening session with Geoff Lemon to take you home to Stumps.
The breaking story this morning is David Warner’s baggy greens have been found. That’s the good news. The bad news is we won’t see the veteran opener wearing his prized cap for a while yet because he was dismissed for 34 in the first innings of his farewell Test. The better news is that it’s a bright, rainless day in Sydney and we will see Australia resume at 116-2, trailing by 192 runs in their pursuit of Pakistan’s feisty first innings 313.
This is the Pink Test and Day Three is Jane McGrath Day so this venerable old cricket ground is festooned in pink. Also in the pink are Pakistan, who again rocked Australia’s momentum by removing both Warner after an opening stand of 70 and, late in the day, his opening partner Usman Khawaja for 47. They did it with superb bowling. And, as has become their habit, almost undid it with abysmal fielding, Warner edging a few through slips and being dropped cold by debutant Saim Ayub when he was on 20.
Cricket’s archaic laws, Sydney’s mercurial summer weather and weirdly low-wattage floodlights cost us a full day’s play, the covers coming out before tea for bad light and rain but we are all systems go for play today. The teams have been photographed in their baggy pink caps and donated them for auction as is tradition. And very soon Steve Smith and Marnus Labuschagne will stroll out to continue Australia’s innings and take this twisting thriller of a Test into what should be an intriguing Day Three.
