Throughout Day 4, there were several moments when it appeared as though Pakistan may win the match outright. However, a resolute Pat Cummins quickly ended that in the last session, becoming the first Test skipper to take ten wickets in an MCG Test. Even before the teams travel to Sydney for the third Test of the new year, Australia won the series 2-0 thanks to a 79-run loss of Pakistan, which saw them go from 216 for 5 to 237 all out.
When Cummins ended Shan Masood’s brisk essay towards the end of the second session, threatening to take the game away from Australia, he had set the precedent. Grinding away at the objective, Masood and Babar Azam did a fantastic job of containing Nathan Lyon and preventing Cummins from giving his rapid, longer breaks. However, the Australian fast bowlers retaliated, being absolutely unforgiving in the last session, which turned Lyon into Pakistan’s last means of escape.
Masood’s wicket had already shocked Pakistan, but Babar Azam’s second unplayable nipbacker of the Test, bearing his name, sent shivers down their spine. Josh Hazlewood was the one to duck back in and open his bat-pad gap this time. Pakistan’s chase looked certain to quickly go off course at 143/4, but Mohammad Rizwan grabbed control and defied the hosts. His first runs of the innings came from a slog sweep of Lyon for six, after which he brought Mitchell Starc into the attack with a four-run cover drive.
Saud Shakeel, on the other hand, was trapped in a shell and tried to escape by trying an upper cut off a short ball from Starc. He didn’t connect well and ended up hitting the ball to Alex Carey behind the stumps even though the shot was on. As Rizwan and Agha Salman established a crucial sixth-wicket stand, Pakistan’s next dose of defiance emerged in the face of adversity. The two Pakistani batsmen added just 24 runs in the seven overs following Shakeel’s departure, demonstrating how effective Australia’s speed trio was.
Despite Lyon’s two consecutive fours from Salman, the two persevered and soon made some runs off of Hazlewood. The aim was now down to double figures, as the two brought up an important fifty-run stand. Cummins grabbed the game from Pakistan just as it appeared that they had established a firm hold on it. Initially, he delivered a length ball that Rizwan lowered his wrists on at the last second. Instead of rising as high as Rizwan had anticipated, the ball deflected off his arm and went to the keeper.
Australian players sent the decision upstairs because they were positive about a nick. The ball went off the glove, so the third umpire ruled that out after seeing multiple replays and some closely cropped shots. Rizwan had to plod off, sad as he was. Australia took the next four wickets for just 18 runs in the span of 41 balls, indicating that they could smell blood from this point on.
Throughout the game, Cummins, who had forced top-order hitters to play at his unplayable lines and nick to the slip cordon, bowled some short balls to the lower order. According to Aamer Jamal, the batsman attempted to tuck away a delivery that was off length, but the Australian captain pouched on the leading edge. Then he delivered Shaheen Afridi a bouncer, which the player awkwardly fended off and Marnus Labuschagne caught at short leg. Cummins achieved his second 10-wicket haul in Test cricket with this.
With Cummins calling out his greatest bowler for a clean sweep, the Test was moving only in one direction from this point on. To seal the game, Starc came and took the final two wickets off the first two balls he bowled. With a stubborn half-century under his belt, Agha Salman attempted to move the scorecard by going big, only to top-edge a short ball. Running forward from fine leg, Mitchell Marsh covered a lot of ground and made a fantastic diving catch. David Warner rushed in from first slip and completed a diving grab after Mir Hamza, who also received a harsh bumper first up, barely got his bat behind the ball.
Score Card: Australia 318 & 262 (Mitchell Marsh 96, Alex Carey 53, Steve Smith 50; Shaheen Afridi 4-76, Mir Hamza 4-32) beat Pakistan 264 & 237 (Shan Masood 60, Babar Azam 41; Pat Cummins 5-49, Mitchell Starc 4-55) by 79 runs