19th over: Pakistan 39-0 (Shan Masood 12, Azhar Ali 20) Cummins again, and he does make Azhar reach for a ball outside off. Plays it down into the ground, chopping it with an arc of the bat, but that wasn’t a safe shot. Against fuller balls Azhar blocks, but isn’t getting them in the middle. He hasn’t timed a shot today, really, except maybe that on-drive earlier. But he’s staying in place, and jabs a single across his front pad to end the over and keep strike.
18th over: Pakistan 38-0 (Shan Masood 12, Azhar Ali 19) Now Shan wants to get into the waiting game, playing out a maiden against Lyon.
17th over: Pakistan 38-0 (Shan Masood 12, Azhar Ali 19) Cummins adds a maiden to his tally, playing the patience game with Azhar around off stump. Azhar loves the patience game. He would not prefer to play Hungry Hungry Hippos.
16th over: Pakistan 38-0 (Shan Masood 12, Azhar Ali 19) Lyon to Shan, who waits out the over, mostly defending off the back foot again. Lyon is excited when Shan leaves, counting on turn against a ball that doesn’t get much, and isn’t far away from off stump. But the last ball of the over Lyon drops short, and Shan is alert enough to take advantage, playing a controlled cut shot through backward point for his first boundary.
15th over: Pakistan 34-0 (Shan Masood 8, Azhar Ali 19) Cummins from the other end, and nice carry outside the off stump, Azhar shouldering arms. Closer to the woodwork with the next ball, cutting back in but sailing well over the bails. Azhar left the ball on length with confidence. Quite a high backlift in his waiting stance, Azhar, then comes down on the ball. Another maiden for Cummins.
14th over: Pakistan 34-0 (Shan Masood 8, Azhar Ali 19) Refreshed, iced, garnished, and salt-rimmed, the players return to their work. Lyon bowling outside off, Azhar reaching across to whip to leg. A single. Lyon gets his first look at the left-hander, and immediately comes around the wicket to him, bringing the slip into play. A short leg as well. On the money, right on off stump. Nice flight from Lyon and some dip. Shan is defending off the back foot, which Lyon won’t mind either. Those pads are right in front of the stumps.
13th over: Pakistan 33-0 (Shan Masood 8, Azhar Ali 18) Bouncer from Cummins! A good one, around the wicket to the left-hander. Shan hops and fends it down, and it would have been interesting if short leg were still in position. Instead they’ve got square leg out in case there’s a hook, but we haven’t seen either batsman attempt one yet. Cummins reverts to length, getting some seam movement away from Shan for a couple of balls, then goes the bouncer again but Shan ducks. Pakistan with the control so far. And more, as Cummins bowls fuller and Shan drives him through cover for two. Only once in the first hour, with Azhar’s missed drive, have the batsmen played an excessive shot. Otherwise they have been models of restraint. Drinks.
Updated
12th over: Pakistan 31-0 (Shan Masood 6, Azhar Ali 18) Nathan Lyon is on to bowl, some off-spin to give the fast bowlers a break. He starts a little straight, and Azhar whips him to leg and runs sharply to get back for a second run. Lyon moves his line wider thereafter, bowling over the wicket, meaning the right-hander has to reach for the ball to try to work it to leg. There’s no further score.
11th over: Pakistan 29-0 (Shan Masood 6, Azhar Ali 16) Cummins drops short but Shan is down underneath it immediately. That’s a giveaway as well: no thoughts of taking on the bouncer, both these batsmen are happy to just bat time to begin the match and make sure they give their team a foothold. Shan defends from the crease thereafter. It’s been impressive application from him. A maiden for Cummins.
10th over: Pakistan 29-0 (Shan Masood 6, Azhar Ali 16) Back of a length from Hazlewood and edged, but on the bounce into the cordon. Azhar did that deliberately, rode the bounce to keep that ball down even as it surprised him. Skilled play. Hazlewood follows up by striving for some extra pace and oversteps, his long limb telescoping out over the front line. But Azhar is playing really calmly, and waits for a fuller ball that he can get forward to and push through the covers for two. He’s not trying anything too much, but he’s not getting becalmed either.
9th over: Pakistan 26-0 (Shan Masood 6, Azhar Ali 14) Pat Cummins is on first change. A lot of talk about whether he should take the new ball, but Starc’s biggest threat in the first 40 overs is with new-ball swing. Cummins doesn’t start right, on Shan’s pads for a single, then overpitched for Azhar to drive two through cover. But he gets the line right across Shan, then in at the body and nearly brings his short-leg catcher into play.
8th over: Pakistan 24-0 (Shan Masood 5, Azhar Ali 13) Seam movement in from Hazlewood and again Azhar is hit on the pads. This time Paine comes up to ask about a review, but Hazlewood thinks it was missing leg, and he’s probably right. He slips too full with the next ball, and Azhar has no problem connecting this time, playing a very nice on-drive away for four!
7th over: Pakistan 19-0 (Shan Masood 5, Azhar Ali 9) Fourth over on the trot for Starc, and Shan is growing into his innings as well, taking a ball off his pads away for a brace of runs. Then miscues a single. Azhar gets tangled up trying to play to the leg side, missing the ball but it hits him high on the pad and the appeal is turned down.
6th over: Pakistan 16-0 (Shan Masood 2, Azhar Ali 9) Off the back foot now for Azhar, just waiting for Hazlewood’s shorter length and steering it away off the open face through gully. Warner puts in a good chase and save on the boundary to keep the scoring to two. Hazlewood draws him into a looser drive afterwards though, and Paine is celebrating, though the umpire says no… does Snicko suggest the tiniest flicker of the graph there as ball passes bat? That would have been interesting had it been reviewed.
5th over: Pakistan 13-0 (Shan Masood 1, Azhar Ali 7) Starc keeps pitching up, looking for swing, but Azhar is growing in confidence to take those deliveries on. Not with any big shots, but just presenting the straight bat and punching a couple of drives straight. First he takes two runs, then drives more firmly for three. Low-risk accumulation, smart play from the very experienced opener. Shan Masood then gets off the mark with a nudge off his pads for one.
4th over: Pakistan 7-0 (Shan Masood 0, Azhar Ali 2) Hazlewood is right in the channel outside Shan’s off stump, aside from slipping in a bouncer to see how it feels coming out. He has the best bouncer of these three Australian quicks, for my money, when he gives it full effort. But that was a warm-up.
3rd over: Pakistan 7-0 (Shan Masood 0, Azhar Ali 2) First runs off the bat for Pakistan, as Starc bowls on the stumps and Azhar is able to blunt the ball into the leg side for a couple of runs, finding a gap square. Starc continues on that straight approach, nearly drawing an edge down the leg side as Azhar misses a glance.
2nd over: Pakistan 5-0 (Shan Masood 0, Azhar Ali 0) Josh Hazlewood starts from the other end, and he is right on the money straight away. What a wonderful bowler he is. You can get complacent about Hazlewood because others are flashier, but he proved once again when he came in for the second Ashes Test at Lord’s in August just how good he is. He immediately gets good bounce from a perfect length here at the Gabba, pinning Shan to the crease. Then when he slips the ball fuller, it swings prodigiously and late. One sneaks down the leg side and away from Paine in the air, for four extras. But the next beats the outside edge by a micron.
1st over: Pakistan 1-0 (Shan Masood 0, Azhar Ali 0) Mitchell Starc has the new ball and will look for swing. He does so immediately, swinging his first ball away from the left-handed Shan. Nice shape. The second ball loses its line though, drifting onto leg stump and clunking away off the pad for a leg bye. Pakistan get off the mark. Starc very nearly does too next ball – searing delivery! It swings into the right-handed Azhar and nearly cleans him up lbw. But he just gets an inside edge onto it before it clatters into his pad. Starc tries a couple more yorkers, and they’re pretty good as well. Azhar survives, just looking to block.
Drop me a line
Remember you can email me any time with thoughts or contributions, at geoff.lemon@the guardian.com. You can also find me on Twitter using @GeoffLemonSport.
Terry Hogan has written in. “Love the Flight of the Conchords reference to open. Hopefully the game lasts longer than 2 minutes, or 2 days for that matter.” Two days in heaven is better than one day in heaven.
Teams
Pakistan have left out Mohammad Abbas? What madness is this? He towelled up Australia in the UAE last year, seaming the ball even on a Dubai road. He could have been wonderful in Brisbane. Mind you, Shaheen Shah Afridi isn’t too bad himself, and Imran Khan (the new version) took a lot of wickets against Australia A.
Pakistan
Shan Masood
Azhar Ali *
Haris Sohail
Babar Azam
Asad Shafiq
Iftikhar Ahmed
Mohammad Rizwan +
Yasir Shah
Shaheen Afridi
Imran Khan
Naseem Shah
Australia
Joe Burns
David Warner
Marnus Labuschagne
Steve Smith
Travis Head
Matthew Wade
Tim Paine * +
Pat Cummins
Mitch Starc
Nathan Lyon
Josh Hazlewood
Pakistan win the toss and will bat
The first little advantage for Pakistan. A lot of bowling sides have started with hope at the Gabba and watched it quickly disappear. So if the visitors can avoid any early problems, they can set themselves up for the day. Azhar Ali has no hesitation in making his choice.
Preamble
Geoff Lemon
It’s cricket, it’s cricket time. You know when I’m wearing my cricket socks, that means it’s cricket time.
Look, I could write you a long and considered preamble about how nice it is that Test match season has rolled around again, and how long it’s been, and what it signifies to those involved, and the relative chances of the teams lining up. But… I already did that, in an article last night. Here you go.
