Australia hold the aces going into the fourth day of the Boxing Day Test against Pakistan as both sides will look to force a result. Join The Roar for live scores and coverage from 10am (AEDT).
Follow the live scores and blog of the fourth day’s play from 10.00 am local time.
With rain having played havoc right through the first couple of days in Melbourne, it must have come as a huge relief for the two teams and the fans that not too much time was lost to inclement weather on the third day.
The Australian bowlers continued with their struggles to get Pakistan out quickly enough as Azhar Ali and the lower-order continued to take advantage of a flat pitch and easing conditions.
Azhar notched up his second score of more than 200 in 2016 – he had earlier scored a triple-century against West Indies – while being involved in a 118-run stand for the eighth wicket with Sohail Khan.
Sohail, drafted into the line-up in place of Rahat Ali, smashed a 65-ball 65 to give an idea of the flattening MCG surface as Pakistan were able to move to 443 rather quickly before the declaration finally came in.
Australia lost Matt Renshaw early, bowled to a wild slog off the bowling of Yasir Shah and should have been two down but for a string of Wahab Riaz no-balls. One of these accounted for David Warner as well, bowled off an inside-edge, but once he had got that life, there was hardly any looking back.
Warner found an able ally in Usman Khawaja and together they piled on the Pakistani misery. Both were at their punishing best – Warner was brutal to Khawaja’s silken but the end result was what mattered to the two teams and it was a partnership of 198 runs for the second wicket.
By the time Warner was dismissed, he had scored 144 from 143 deliveries and pushed the Test match forward with his wonderfully aggressive batting – enough to raise hopes of a result. Khawaja was unbeaten on 95 at stumps, with skipper Steven Smith giving him company.
What Australia could look to do on day four is to bat it out. With a possible 98 overs in the day’s play, if they can get themselves at least a 100 runs ahead and put a possibly battered Pakistan back in on the final day, they could well be in the running to turn things around.
The weather looks a bit dodgy again but the rate at which Australia went on day three does seem to suggest they should be able to get 300 runs in the day’s play on Thursday. That could set the game up quite nicely for the final day.
Follow the live scores & blog of this fourth day’s play of the second Test between Australia and Pakistan from 10.00 am local time on Thursday.
Nudge
Guest
Be interesting to see what Smith's plan is tomor. Reckon they may have a crack, see if they can bat till half hour before lunch and then have a go. More than likely looking at a draw but I'm not completely ruling out an Aussie win.
AREH
Roar Guru
I worry he's been shoe-horned into that, it seems to be the common belief about him to a lot of people, however this is a guy that still has a FC average in the mid-40s, regardless of how clean a ball-striker he is in short-form. I think it'd be really unfair to narrow him into that corner. But as rightly pointed out, he has had very little red ball cricket for quite some time, so he's probably not ready to be thrown into test cricket just yet.
Suneer Chowdhary
Roar Guru
No further play today, abandoned because of the incessant rain. Pakistan will breathe easy. They could have gotten themselves into trouble despite the docile nature of the surface being a lot of runs behind but as it is, Australia are 22 ahead and with six wickets lost. They will still come out tomorrow and try and hit their way to a reasonable lead I suppose before putting Pakistan back in but a lot will depend on the weather. Becomes meaningless to trouble the bowlers if only, say, 40 overs are going to be possible during the day. Will be back tomorrow one final time in the Test. Later.
Suneer Chowdhary
Roar Guru
Raining harder. Play tonight doesn't look likely.
Suneer Chowdhary
Roar Guru
Dean Jones thinks it's good night. Waiting.
Paul D
Roar Guru
Hopefully it just rains all day tomorrow and spares us the pointless sight of a few listless hours in the field by Australia's bowlers. Should just call the game off now and go to Sydney.
Paul D
Roar Guru
Just had a look at the BOM and that looks like an epic storm. The sort of rain we get up here in Brisbane. There's a bigger front about half an hour behind the one that's dumping it down over the G atm so I doubt very much we'll be back out today
Suneer Chowdhary
Roar Guru
The update from the MCG is that it's still raining. Lot of rain. No resumption any time soon I would suspect.
Nate
Guest
Wow, that rain was really something. Not sure what it got like over the G but it was belting down in the western suburbs.
JB
Guest
No benefit in declaring now, Smith Starc Hazelwood all hit a heavy ball,I'd like to see them go for better than a run a ball for an hour or so, Pressure is on Pakistan they are down one nil and can't win the series if it's a draw, they should be the aggressive team here,
Jameswm
Guest
Temporarily. Not forever.
Jameswm
Guest
Yeah good call. Smith's only batting ahead of Wade because he's skipper.
Alex L
Roar Rookie
Too dark for the players, and it's about to rain cats and dogs.
Paul D
Roar Guru
He's picked for his mouth and nothing else
Suneer Chowdhary
Roar Guru
If they declare with a thunderstorm over the city, even Pakistan won't be batting. Again, no point of a declaration unless the entire session gets rained off.
Suneer Chowdhary
Roar Guru
Teams are going off for light. Too dark for the umpires. The players will take an early tea almost immediately after Smith gets to his 100. Australia are 6/465 at the end of the second session of the fourth day's play, two wickets lost in the session. The two umpires are still out in the middle and so is the fourth umpire, who has come out with an umbrella. Not raining but just in case - oh wait, even as I typed that, it's started to drizzle a tad. Australia lead by 22. 42 overs remain in the day.
Kaks
Roar Guru
Why? No chance of winning if you declare now. Build a lead of around 150 if you can and go after them in a day, see if you can knock them over. No chance of losing
Brian
Guest
Sky is gloomy, thunderstorms coming, Azhar off the field, Smith has 100 why not declare
Suneer Chowdhary
Roar Guru
Smith is on 97 and has had a couple of chances to get off that score. And suddenly, the umps are coming together to talk about the light... ...it's gotten darker and the floodlights are on. Next ball, Smith cuts a wide ball from Sohail into the gap to get to his 17th Test century! What a player!
Mike Dugg
Guest
They should go the Chris Rogers style rout of picking Hartley for a couple of years until one of the young keepers is ready.