Pat Cummins takes 10 wickets as Australia defeats Pakistan to win the series
After dismissing the visitors for 264 in the first session, Australia fell to 16-4 as Pakistan’s seamers bowled their finest spell of the series, bringing the tourists back into the game. Marsh, on the other hand, was dropped in the slips by Abdullah Shafique on 20 and went on to fall short of his fourth Test century, leading Australia reach 187-6 at stumps.
Australia started their innings at 187-6 at the Melbourne Cricket Ground (MCG), having recovered from a critical position of 16 for four the day before. Alex Carey delivered a tenacious performance of 52, his sixth test half-century, before being caught leg before wicket by seamer Mir Hamza (4-32), bringing the Australian innings to a close.
Australia skipper Pat Cummins led from the front as the hosts defeated Pakistan by 79 runs in the Boxing Day Test at the Melbourne Cricket Ground on Friday to win the three-match series. Cummins took five wickets in each innings and finished with figures of 10/97 as Australia stormed down Pakistan’s batting order.
The paceman came in to dismiss Pakistan’s final recognised batsmen, Mohammad Rizwan, and record his 250th test wicket. Cummins (5-49) then dismissed Aamer Jamal for a duck to force an additional half-hour of play, during which he took his fifth wicket of the innings and tenth of the match to help sweep up the tail.
Pakistan were knocked out for 237 in their second innings, chasing a total of 317, with Mitchell Starc taking four wickets. Captain Shan Masood blasted a quickfire 60 for Pakistan, while Salman Ali Agha also reached 50.
It was Cummins second 10-wicket match haul in 57 tests, capping off a spectacular year in which he led Australia to the World Test Championship, a 50-overs World Cup victory, and the retention of the Ashes in England.
Cummins, who finished with 10 wickets and was named man of the match, was the star of this Boxing Day Test.
Shan Masood: “We have to look at the bigger picture. The smiles are that there are a lot of positives. We can easily be ‘what if’, but if you give a quality side like Australia sniff like we did, sometimes with the ball and with the bat and also in the field if you drop someone in form like Mitchell Marsh, we might not have been chasing today, but in the bigger picture this is the way we want to play Test cricket. Fighting until the end and a result was possible for us. It’s a reflection of four days, the game kept turning. Pat Cummins came in with that spell and that’s why he’s one of the best bowlers in the world. Then again with the bat, Steve Smith and Mitch Marsh’s partnership. From our guys, we’ve taken 20 wickets which we haven’t done in Australia for a while, that’s a box ticked, in terms of runs everyone got good starts but against quality sides we want to get 100s. A lot to work on. But this is a blueprint.”
Pat Cummins: “Love playing here, Boxing Day is the biggest Test match each year. You’ve got a few options here, a bit of seam in the last few years, and I like a bit of up and down bounce. Little bit twitchy, felt okay but they were batting pretty nicely. Anything with a 3 in front of it was the aim, so we got that, felt like we had enough to bowl at but a little bit tight. Steve and Marsh’s partnership got us back in the game, we were behind for a little while. They had their tails up, the wicket was tough. That was a huge partnership and gave us something to defend. Even at 4 for 16 the dressing room was really calm, there’s real trust and support and it feels like each week another matchwinner stands up. Think we’ll look back and remember 2023 as one of the special ones.”
Australia: Pat Cummins (c), Scott Boland, Alex Carey, Cameron Green, Josh Hazlewood, Travis Head, Usman Khawaja, Marnus Labuschagne, Nathan Lyon, Mitch Marsh, Steve Smith, Mitch Starc, David Warner
Pakistan: Shan Masood (c), Aamer Jamal, Abdullah Shafique, Abrar Ahmed, Babar Azam, Faheem Ashraf, Hasan Ali, Imam-ul-Haq, Mir Hamza, Mohammad Nawaz, Mohammad Rizwan, Mohammad Wasim Jnr, Saim Ayub, Salman Agha, Sarfaraz Ahmed, Saud Shakeel, Shaheen Afridi
