Abdullah Shafique drops an absolute sitter offered by David Warner on Day 1 of AUS vs PAK Boxing Day Test
Pakistan gave Australia an early reprieve on Day 1 of the Boxing Day Test at the Melbourne Cricket Ground on Tuesday, December 26, as Abdullah Shafique dropped a dolly of a catch offered by David Warner off Shaheen Afridi's bowling.
Down 1-0 in the three-match series, Pakistan won the toss and opted to bowl first in the second Test. On the last ball of the third over, Afridi bowled a wonderful delivery in the channel that angled in and then nipped away, squaring up Warner.
The Australian opener, who was batting on 2, nicked the ball and the edge went at a comfortable height and pace to Shafique at first slip, only for the fielder to drop the simplest of chances.
Afridi could not believe his bad luck and had his hands on his head for a few moments before walking back to his bowling run-up. Pakistan had to pay a heavy price for the let-off as Australia’s openers, Warner and Usman Khawaja, ended up adding 90 runs for the opening wicket.
Earlier, the visitors made a big decision to leave out former captain Sarfaraz Ahmed from the playing XI and replace him with Mohammad Rizwan for the Boxing Day Test.
Here are the line-ups of the two sides for the second Australia vs Pakistan Test.
Australia: David Warner, Usman Khawaja, Marnus Labuschagne, Steven Smith, Travis Head, Mitchell Marsh, Alex Carey (w), Mitchell Starc, Pat Cummins (c), Nathan Lyon, Josh Hazlewood
Pakistan: Abdullah Shafique, Imam-ul-Haq, Shan Masood (c), Babar Azam, Saud Shakeel, Mohammad Rizwan (w), Agha Salman, Aamer Jamal, Shaheen Afridi, Hasan Ali, Mir Hamza
Australia lose David Warner for 38 at the stroke of lunch
Coming back to Day 1 of the Boxing Day Test, David Warner was dismissed at the stroke of lunch, against the run of play, for 38 off 83 balls.
The first ball of the 28th over from off-spinner Agha Salman was a flighted delivery outside off stump. The Australian opener went hard at the ball, but only ended up getting a thick outside edge, which was gobbled up by Babar Azam at first slip.
Warner struck three fours in the innings before being dismissed. Australia went to lunch on Day 1 of the MCG Test at 90/1. At the time of writing, they were 107/1 after 32 overs with Usman Khawaja batting on 41 and Marnus Labuschagne on 11.