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DAY 3 LIVE

with Tim Michell

1.46PM: NO HAT-TRICK

Mitch Marsh lets the hat-trick ball sail through harmlessly outside the off-stump.

WinViz has gone from 80-20 in Australia’s favour to 53-47.

1.43PM: HEAD BOWLED FIRST BALL!

Absolute carnage at the MCG!

Hamza gets the ball to tail back to Travis Head who plays all around it and he’s on a hat-trick.

Australia is 4-16.

“Australia under all sorts of pressure. It’s been a long time since they’ve felt this on home soil,” says Adam Gilchrist on Fox Cricket.

“That is bowling perfection. Completely deceived Travis Head.”

1.41PM: WICKET! WARNER DRAGS ON

David Warner’s time as a Test batter at the MCG is over.

Mir Hamza drops short and Warner gets a bottom edge on an attempted pull shot onto the stumps.

Australia is in all sorts at 3-16, leading by 70 runs.

“They are right in the hunt here,” says Adam Gilchrist on Fox Cricket.

SECOND SESSION UNDERWAY — AUSTRALIA RESUMES AT 2-6

The second session of day three was delayed a few minutes due to third umpire Richard Illingworth getting stuck in a lift.

Players and umpires gathered in the middle of the MCG and are having a chat as we wait for developments.

“Do you reckon cricket is the number one sport that has stoppages for the most bizarre things?” says Michael Vaughan on Fox Cricket.

“We’ve got a stoppage here because the third umpire is stuck in a lift. You’ve got your two umpires ready to go in the middle, your Pakistan team ready to go, the two batters out there ready to play.

“Everything is ready to go and we have got a third umpire stuck in a lift.”

Wasim Akram said he had “never seen anything like this before.”

Play eventually got underway about five minutes late after fourth umpire Phil Gillespie made his way to the third umpire’s area.

Adam Gilchrist added: “He’s still puffing from running up the steps.”

Illingworth appeared and took his position after a few balls.

12.46PM: WICKET! LABUSCHAGNE CAUGHT BEHIND LAST BALL BEFORE LUNCH

What a mini-session for Pakistan.

“Can we produce one piece of magic?” asks Michael Vaughan on Fox Cricket.

It wasn’t necessarily a magic ball, but a magic outcome for Pakistan.

Labuschagne tries to clip a ball off his pads, gets a small edge and Rizwan cleans up down the leg side.

An amazing 15-minute period for Pakistan and Australia is 2-6, leading by 60 runs.

“Pakistan very much back in the game here,” says Wasim Akram.

At lunch, why not have a crack at our Pakistan v Australia quiz?

12.33PM: WICKET! KHAWAJA EDGES BEHIND

What a start by Shaheen!

Second ball of the innings and he gets Khawaja edging a ball that angled in and then went slightly away to get the wicket.

Rizwan did the rest.

Another wicket here and Australia would effectively be 2-54 which would almost put this Test back on an even keel.

“Well, we were just talking about how important it was for (Pakistan) to start well. It’s their main man,” Ricky Ponting says on Channel 7.

“The most experienced fast bowler, Shaheen Afridi. With an absolute peach to Khawaja. Second ball of the innings. Good length. Left him off the wicket. Squared him up.

“Takes the outside edge. Good bowling. Just moved away. Straight forward catch to Rizwan. To the man who has been pumping out (runs), Usman Khawaja is on his way for second ball duck.”

A reminder due to the later start, lunch is due at 12.45pm.

12.20PM: PAKISTAN ALL OUT FOR 264

Sharp work from Alex Carey behind the stumps to catch Mir Hamza on the line and end Pakistan’s innings on 264.

Credit to Aamir Jamal for a fine hand from No.8 — he finishes unbeaten on 33 from 80 balls.

Australia leads by 54 runs.

“Good to get it done (and) hold on to a decent lead. Pretty happy,” Cummins tells Fox Cricket.

“I think I said yesterday, it was pretty tricky that first day or so with the bat. So, I was happy to get 300-odd. Again, any first-innings lead you’re happy with.

“I think the wicket’s in a pretty good position now, so time to cash in.”

12.15PM: WICKET! HIGH FIVE FOR CUMMINS

Pat Cummins you can’t do that to a No.10 batter.

Cummins has the ball talking and gets one to nip back at Hassan Ali that would have skittled most batters.

From outside off it crahses into off-stump and Pakistan is nine down.

Cummins has 5-46 and salutes the MCG crowd.

This is the 10th time Cummins has taken five wickets in Test cricket and second time against Pakistan.

“Whatever he touches turns to gold,” says Isa Guha on Fox Cricket.

“Pat Cummins can do no wrong.”

11.55AM: WICKET! LYON TRAPS SHAHEEN AFTER REVIEW

Shaheen reviews immediately after being given out lbw off Nathan Lyon.

He’s a long way back, but it struck him very high on the pad and he’s a big man.

The DRS goes Lyon’s way, showing more than half the ball was striking the top of off-stump.

That was an enterprising innings by the Pakistan No.9, making 21 from 20 balls to bring the deficit to less than 80 runs.

11.40AM: ‘LESSER OF TWO EVILS’ — ACA WEIGHS IN ON JOHNSON

Australian Cricket Association boss Todd Greenberg says Cricket Australia chose “the lesser of two evils” when it cancelled two speaking engagements featuring Mitchell Johnson in Perth.

Johnson was stood down from two lunchtime functions at Optus Stadium, but CA abandoned the plan after the former Test quick’s scathing criticism of Warner in newspaper columns.

At the time, Cricket Australia told this masthead: “Mitchell is one of Australia’s most celebrated bowlers, but we felt on this occasion it was in everyone’s best interests that he was not the guest speaker at the CA functions.”

Greenberg said on Thursday that CA had been backed into a “lose-lose” situation by the volcanic feud.

“It was one of those, I think, lose-lose (situations),” he told SEN.

“If they continue with it they’re going to cop some criticism. If they don’t, they’ll also cop criticism. I think it was the lesser of two evils by the sound of things.”

11.20AM: WICKET! RIZWAN FALLS

There’s the wicket Australia badly wanted this morning.

Mohammad Rizwan falls for 42 after failing keep a drive off Pat Cummins along the ground.

Rizwan tried to pierce the off-side field but bunted the ball to David Warner for a simple catch.

Pakistan still trails by 103 runs and is staring at a significant first-innings deficit now.

Cummins has four wickets and has clearly been the standout of the bowlers from both teams.

“It was a pretty obvious plan and he fell straight into the net,” says Adam Gilchrist on Fox Cricket.

11.10AM: HAZLEWOOD — WHY I WAS HAPPY TO MISS IPL RICHES

After Mitch Starc and Pat Cummins pocketed more than $7m combined, you wonder how their bowling comrade Josh Hazlewood might have felt to miss out on the IPL auction.

The answer? Happy.

Hazlewood, who has played for Chennai Super Kings, Mumbai Indians and Royal Challengers Bangalore during his IPL career, is not available for the full IPL tournament.

But he is keeping his options open should a slot become available during the middle of the competition.

“I was happy not to get picked up. The way I was heading with only being available for maybe a month including finals,” he told SEN.

“Hopefully a quick or two go down halfway through and it can open up a window for me to play a part in any team for sort of the last few weeks.”

10.45AM: THE AWKWARD REALITY FOR PAKISTAN’S NEW CAPTAIN

Pakistan’s new Test captain Shan Masood is facing a “big dilemma” two Tests into his leadership, says former Australian batter Simon Katich.

Masood, who averages 28.5 from 32 Tests, has tried to take the game to the Australians and play aggressively — both in Perth and at the MCG.

His tactic worked, to a point, on day two when he dispatched Nathan Lyon during a counterattacking flourish.

But it ultimately brought about Shan’s downfall when he went after Lyon one too many times and skied a catch to Mitch Marsh.

Katich said Shan was in an “unenviable” position where he was the most-vulnerable of Pakistan’s batters to selection pressure.

“The top-four … it’s a class top-four. They can all play,” Katich said on SEN.

“But Shan Masood has got the biggest dilemma because his Test numbers aren’t brilliant, averaging under 30, and he’s trying to play an aggressive style of cricket which isn’t easy to do against this Australian attack in these conditions.”

Damien Fleming said the Pakistan skipper should be batting at No.5.

“I like the attitude. You see Travis Head batting at No.5. I’d like to see Masood there,” Fleming said.

“I tell you what Rizwan is a very good player. I was wondering whether they would play Rizwan and Sarfaraz in the same team in that first Test. If that was to happen I reckon Rizwan could bat three.”

Meanwhile, play is underway on day three with the start only delayed by 15 minutes due to morning rain.

10.20AM: LATEST WEATHER, PLAY UPDATE

If there’s no more rain at the MCG, play will start at 10.45am.

10.10AM: PONTING’S BRUTAL REALITY CHECK FOR OPENING CONTENDER

Ricky Ponting has dished out a brutal reality check for Australian selectors, saying there was “no chance” Cameron Green would open against the West Indies.

As selectors weigh up whether to shoehorn Green into the top of the order of choose one of Cameron Bancroft, Matthew Renshaw or Marcus Harris, Ponting made his preferred option clear.

Asked if Green would succeed Warner after his SCG farewell, Ponting told Channel 7: “No chance. Time to go back and find Australia’s next best opening batsman with the India test series and Ashes in mind.”

9.40AM: PLAY DELAYED

Classic Melbourne! The covers are back on at the MCG as the lightest of rain falls. It’s been confirmed we will have a delayed start to day three

9:35AM: RAIN CLEARS IN MELBOURNE

Signs are looking promising for play this morning at the MCG after overnight and morning rain in Melbourne. The main covers have been taken off and Australia has been warming up as it eyes the last four wickets of Pakistan’s innings. Maybe a bit of juice in the track and humidity in the air will help Australia’s cause.

8AM: PAKISTAN SERIES UNDERPINS BROKEN BARRIERS OF TEST CRICKET

Robert Craddock

When the Pakistan cricket side turned up with gifts for Australia on Christmas Day, it seemed odd that teams about to go into a Boxing Day battle could be so intimate.

Could you imagine Allan Border doing it for Mike Gatting?

But that’s life in modern cricket. Covid togetherness and the Indian Premier League, which has no Pakistan players, has changed everything.

Barriers have been broken down and friendships formed across national lines.

Frenemies have replaced enemies.

It’s happened before, though. Through the years there have been occasions of players from rival nations surviving the hothouse of international cricket to become friends.

Here’s a selection of some of the most noted, and unexpected.

RICHARD HADLEE (NEW ZEALAND)-DEAN JONES (AUSTRALIA):

A story of many threads. Pace great Hadlee dominated Jones in a Test series in the mid-1980s and even branded Jones his bunny. Jones struck back in one-day cricket and they forged a friendship that blossomed through many guest-speaking gigs over the decades. The Hadlees shared Jones’s last Christmas dinner at his Romsey property before his death in 2021 when Sir Richard stirred the pot by giving Jones a Christmas present of a pillow case with a bunny on it.

BRIAN LARA (WEST INDIES)-ANDREW SYMONDS (AUSTRALIA):

Lara flew 10,000km to be present at Symonds’ funeral as a silent tribute to what he called their “developing friendship’’.

“Sometimes you lose relationships with players when you retire,’’ Lara said. “But ours grew and it was not because he forced it or I forced it. It just happened naturally. We were awesome together.’’

MITCH MARSH (AUSTRALIA)-TOM AND SAM CURRAN (ZIMBABWE):

They used to play backyard cricket – and even in hallways – when Mitch’s father Geoff coached Zimbabwe and have remained good mates.

VIRAT KOHLI (INDIA)-AB DE VILLIERS (SOUTH AFRICA):

They played together for Bangalore in the IPL for years and were often seen at breakfast. During Test series between India and South Africa, when one of them peeled away from their home team to talk with the other, teammates occasionally felt a bit left out.

KEITH MILLER (AUSTRALIA)-DENIS COMPTON (ENGLAND):

The two debonair heart-throbs used to love going out together and swapping tales about their deeds in World War II, where Miller was a Mosquito pilot who cheated death on several occasions. Once in Brisbane they were seen leaving the nurses’ quarters at the Royal Brisbane Hospital at 8am the morning of a match.

MARK WAUGH (AUSTRALIA)-KEN RUTHERFORD (NEW ZEALAND):

A mutual love of the racing industry made these two an obvious fit. They used to chat often at Hawkesbury races when Rutherford was club boss and Mark’s wife Kim was racing horses there. Rutherford jokes he likes spending time with Waugh because it makes him feel like a good tipster.

DAVID WARNER (AUSTRALIA)-SHAHEEN SHAH AFRIDI (PAKISTAN):

They got to know each other when they were staying in the same hotel during a Test series in Pakistan. Afridi was known to occasionally wait for Warner at the bottom of a lift to have a chat.

STEVE WAUGH (AUSTRALIA)-RAHUL DRAVID (INDIA):

Test rivals over a long period, they had incredible mutual respect. Waugh enjoyed Dravid’s immaculate technique and his sincerity as a person.

ANDREW FLINTOFF (ENGLAND)-MATT HAYDEN (AUSTRALIA):

Hayden reckons the only cricket deliveries he never actually saw were ones bowled to him in the 2005 Ashes by Flintoff; quick, curling, seaming, brutes of things they were, too. They played together at Chennai in the IPL and Hayden got Flintoff to write the foreword to his book. Hayden reckons the funniest hours of his life came when he was drug-tested in the IPL and Flintoff stayed back to keep him company, spinning yarns about his life.

GLENN MCGRATH (AUSTRALIA)-HEATH STREAK (ZIMBABWE):

They shared a great love of the outdoors and used to go on safaris together.

SHANE WARNE (AUSTRALIA)-KEVIN PIETERSEN (ENGLAND):

Both showmen and entertainers who respected these traits in each other. Warne once wound up Pietersen by telling his Australian teammates to call Pietersen “Kevin’’ rather than KP on the field.

Originally published as Australia v Pakistan, MCG Test: Day 3 live coverage and latest news