Austalia vs Pakistan: 1st Test, Day 2 - 5 talking points
A devastating debacle saw Pakistan crumble from 42/2 to 67/8 on Day 2 of the first Test at the Gabba. The pink ball swung around extravagantly and the Pakistani batsmen, who had looked clueless to second string seamers in the warm-up game, had no idea on how to tackle Australian bowlers Josh Hazlewood and Mitchell Starc.
Earlier in the day, Wahab Riaz and Mohammad Amir had helped Pakistan make early inroads as they removed Smith early and followed it up by cleaning up the lower middle order. But a maiden hundred from Peter Handscomb, and hefty blows in the 10th wicket stand between Lyon and Bird helped Australia to 429.
Sami Aslam was the only Pakistan batsman to get a hang of batting against the pink ball but even he could not convert it into enough runs to save Pakistan. He hung around for 100 balls making 22 before edging down the leg side. Sarfraz Ahmed's aggressive 31 helped Pakistan to 97/8 at stumps, although they are 133 runs away from avoiding a follow-on.
Here are the talking points from Day 2 at the Gabba:
#5 Riaz and Amir fire in tandem
Pakistan came out positively on Day 2 after being made to chase leather the previous day by Smith and Handscomb. Amir settled into a nice rhythm and Riaz had his tails up right from the start.
The pressure created by Amir helped Riaz as he broke the 172-run stand, the highest in day-night Tests for Australia, by dismissing the centurion, Steven Smith. He followed that up with a peach to get rid of Maddinson for 1 and Amir removed Wade and Starc in quick time to reduce Australia to 354/7.
Amir came back to dismiss Hazlewood as he and Riaz shared four wickets apiece to help Pakistan climb back into the game ever so slightly.