Australia v Pakistan: Boxing Day Test, day two – live

Greetings cricket fans and welcome to day two of the Boxing Day Test between Australia and Pakistan in Melbourne. Angus Fontaine here with a bellyful of ham (and a fridge full of dodgier-by-the minute prawns) to guide you through the first half. Geoff Lemon will pad up after lunch.

A big day looms for both teams – and all us spectators. Australia battled through a lost toss, bad weather and good bowling to land at 187 for 3 at stumps from 66 overs with Marnus Labuschagne to resume on 44 and Travis Head on nine. Pakistan bowled beautifully in patches yesterday and must do so again today if they’re to wrestle the series ledger back to 1-1.

Day one lost 20 overs to rain but the bigger deal was that Pakistan lost the chance to scruff this Test by dropping several catches, including Shafique’s early shocker at slip when David Warner was on two. In his penultimate Test, Warner was eventually out for 38 on the last ball before lunch, having reached 18,515 runs across all formats, eclipsing Steve Waugh’s 18,496.

Warner has since described his performance as “lazy” and the same tag could be applied to his opening partner’s dismissal. Having eased to 42, Usman Khawaja played a poor shot off Hasan Ali after lunch. Steve Smith won’t be happy with his typically weird and pernickety innings either, out to Aamer Jamal for 26 after surviving an lbw shout a few minutes prior.

Honours even I reckon. Pakistan have plenty to play for and something to build on, having kept the scoring rate below 40 all day despite fielding sloppier than that displayed by the shickered uncles and cordial-fuelled grommets in my back yard on Christmas Day. The day two forecast looks sunny but with that man Travis Head at the crease, thunder and lightning is always a chance.