9th over: Pakistan 32-2 (Rizwan 0, Babar 19) Starc is into his fifth over now. His pace is rising and he has two wickets in his kitbag so the big man’s superb record against Pakistan is continuing today. He has new batter Rizwan on strike and thumps it into his gloves. Starc puts the next one wide. He knows Rizwan hasn’t scored from seven balls so far and is trying to tempt a wild slash. No dice this time but it’s another Starc maiden.

8th over: Pakistan 32-2 (Rizwan 0, Babar 19) Babar cracks Cummins for four! Great shot by Pakistan’s 117-ODI veteran. Captain Pat might have to consider taking a breather here. He went for 10 off his last over and now he’s been spanked through midwicket with vim. Pat gets his radar right on the next few but goes short and straight on the final throw of the dice and Babar steps out to smack it down the ground. Another four!

7th over: Pakistan 24-2 (Rizwan 0, Babar 11) Starc’s first ball is full but a tad wide of off stump and Abdullah meets it on the up, driving handsomely. Abbott manages to collar that one but Pakistan steal another two runs. Starc’s wicket with his fourth ball has brought Mohammad Rizwan to the crease and he sees off the final two deliveries.

WICKET! Pakistan 24-2 (Shafique c Inglis b Starc 12)

6th over: Pakistan 22-1 (Abdullah 10, Babar 11) Another misfield from Abbott! Babar drove Cummins into the offside and Abbott slid to meet it on the bounce but lost sight of it somehow and Babar ran two when he should’ve been reduced to a single. Now Babar slides one to fine leg for a single. Now Cummin s drops short to Abdullah Shafique and BANG! He rocks back and bashes it down the ground for Pakistan’s first boundary of the day. Grteat counter attack from Pakistan. And now they show finesse, Abdullah clipping off his ankles to steal another two runs through midwicket. A single from the last gives Pakiustan a 10-run over and Pat Cummins plenty of food for thought.

5th over: Pakistan 12-1 (Abdullah 3, Babar 8) Babar lashes at that one! Great statement of intent from the Pakistani pulveriser. Only a finger flung to the right prevented a boundary on that occasion. He gets two runs from Starc. And now Abdullah runs a fast – and risky – single. For once, Cummins is imperfect, a wild throw negating any chance of a runout. Babar is back from a couple of weeks off. He’s been playing golf and, judging from that first shot of the over, has brought his long irons to the MCG today. He drives at Starc’s final delivery and draws a misfield from Sean Abbott. Three runs.

4th over: Pakistan 5-1 (Abdullah 2, Babar 2) Here is Cummins, bustling to the crease. Babar Azam came to the middle after the loss of Ayub and immediately spanked neat two from Starc to draw even with Abdullah. The Pakistan batters can’t do better in this over, with Cummins bang on target straight away. It’s a maiden.

WICKET! Pakistan 3-1 (Ayub bowled Starc 1)

3rd over: Pakistan 3-0 (Ayub 1, Shafique 2) Starc returns. His first over tickled the speed gun at 136kph but there’s a deeper bend to the back this over. Ayub leaves the first few alone, keen to build a big innings and see off the Australian assassin…

2nd over: Pakistan 3-0 (Ayub 1, Shafique 2) Saim Ayub now has the strike to Australia’s captain Pat Cummins and he gets some bat on the first delivery, not much but enough to run a single. Pakistan are off the mark and so is Ayub. Now Shafique gets off his duck with a strong punch through point. Glenn Maxwell retrieves it in the outfield. Now Cummins the conjuror appears! His fourth ball is a beauty, just back of a length and it whizzes past the edge of Shafique’s flailing blade. Good comeback by the skipper.

1st over: Pakistan 0-0 (Saim 0, Shafique 0) Abdullah Shafique has survives the first couple of deliveries and already Starc has extracted a slight hint of swing back into the right-handed batter. Third ball is a fat full-pitched yorker on the offside and Shafique has a swish at it but is beaten for pace. He can’t get near the fifth and dead bats the final delivery. A maiden to get us started

Mitchell Starc has the new ball and we are about to get under way with the first ball of the Australian international summer…

Wiradjuri elder Aunty Joy Murphy Wandin is delivering a gentle and generous Welcome to Country to the teams and a small but vibrant MCG crowd. Melbourne is smack bang in the middle of its Spring racing carnival and many locals have taken today off work the Melbourne Cup, “the race that stops a nation”. Famously, American author Mark Twain, attended the Cup in 1895, and wrote: “The grandstands make a brilliant and wonderful spectacle, a delirium of colour, a vision of beauty. The champagne flows, everybody is vivacious, excited, happy.”

Pat Cummins wins the toss and Australia will bowl first at the MCG

Pakistan have long been an unpredictable cricket team and few predicted their Test series win over England last month. Having run up a first innings total in excess of 500, they looked primed for victory yet spectacularly capitulated to lose the first Test by an innings. Yet, under the calm resolute leadership of Gillespie, they fought back to win the next two Tests. Here’s how James Wallace made sense of such madness…

Regardless of who wins the toss, many cricket fans will be hoping to see Australia’s 22-year-old batting superstar Jake Fraser-McGurk unleashed.

Despite being the new coach of Pakistan, Jason Gillespie is a beloved figure in Australian cricket. The great-grandson of a Kamilaroi warrior, “Dizzy” is recognised as our first male Indigenous Test cricketer.

Sydney-born and Adelaide-raised, Gillespie’s celebrated 71-Test career produced 259 wickets plus another 142 scalps from his 97 ODIs. With his glorious mullet, magnificent moustache and a fast-bowler’s sneer that could curdle a batter’s bone marrow at 10 paces, he was a dream to watch and a nightmare to face.

Curiously, Gillespie’s most famous moment came with the bat: his maiden Test century was a scarcely-believable unbeaten 201 in Bangladesh – the highest score in history by a nightwatchman and an innings compiled over 574 minutes and 425 balls.

Mohammad Hasnain might be familiar to a few Australians. The beanpole quick with the lightning right-arm was first sighted on these shores in 2019 when he made his ODI debut as an 18-year-old. Back then he was regularly nudging the speed gun at 150kph but injuries have derailed his career and cut into that express speed. Five years later he makes a welcome return as a 24-year-old for a 10th white-ball match for Pakistan.

Hasnain looked pretty good in MCG nets on Saturday as he rolled in under the watchful eye of Pakistan’s new Australian coach, Jason Gillespie…

Preamble

Angus Fontaine