Ump stuck in a lift and Australia’s slump to 4-16:high drama reshapes Boxing Day Test

High farce combined with high drama as the two worst shots of the Test combined with the two best balls of the series to suddenly make the second Test a contest of true intensity.

With a first innings lead of 54 this was the afternoon for Australia set up the second Test and a series victory,but pendulums started swinging wildly from the second ball of Australia’s second innings.

After day two Australian captain Pat Cummins was talking aboutthe “dream delivery” he produced which bowled Pakistan’s best batsman,Babar Azam,and turned the match in Australia’s favour.

But shortly before lunch on day three Shaheen Shah Afridi produced the magic ball for a left armer,which moved away from the left-hander and Usman Khawaja nicked off before a run was scored in Australia’s second innings.

That happens. Opening batsmen sometimes get good ones and Khawaya have been extraordinary this year,scoring more than 1200 Test runs. Then Marnus Labuschagne (4) did something that shouldn’t happen,tangling his bat around his legs and nicking off down the leg side to continue a modest year,when he has averaged under 35.

Lunch was taken at 2-6.

Players from both sides had a laugh with the umpires when play was held up by seven minutes because television umpire Richard Illingworth was stuck in a lift.

It was no laughing matter two overs into the second session when David Warner (6) dragged a pull shot into his stumps from a Mir Hamza long hop. For the second innings of the match Warner had gone to an ill-judged cross bat swipe. Retirement shots perhaps?

At 3-16 this was hardly the time for Travis Head. Trashing tired attacks is his speciality,not surviving the new ball. And so it proved when Hamza defied his statistics,two wickets in three Tests at 132 apiece,to produce something special. While left armers usually take the ball away from left-handers,his first delivery to Head darted in late,kept going off the seam and crashed into the stumps.

Never a great technician,Head almost fell over himself as the ball did exactly what he didn’t expect,then stood and looked at the pitch in bemusement,trying to process just what had happened. Just 5.2 overs had been bowled,Australia led by only 70,and the 300 they needed to be historically safe was a long way away.

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