AUS vs PAK: Pakistan are giving Australia a great fight in the Boxing Day Test as their pacers have wreaked havoc against the much-celebrated batting line-up in Melbourne. After wrapping Shan Masood's side for 264, the Aussies took a 54-run lead but the Pakistan pace-battery helped their team storm back into the match.
Well led by Shaheen Afridi and Mir Hamza, the visitors put the hosts in deep trouble with quick wickets in the second innings. Hamza accounted for two of the first four wickets, which included a 'genius' stuff. Playing only his 4th Test, the 31-year-old Hamza cleaned the World Cup star Travis Head with a sensational delivery.
The left-arm pacer outfoxed Head with a delivery that came inside massively to the Southpaw, sending the fans crazy. The Aussies were at 16/2 in the second session of the day when Hamza first got rid of David Warner with a back-of-a-length ball and then produced a jaffa on the very next one. Coming from over the wicket, Hamza used both swing and seam perfectly. He swung the ball inside which pitched fuller just outside off and then it seamed in too. Head looked naive on his first delivery as he was beaten all ended up with the ball hitting the middle stumps. Hamza also had the chance to grab a hat trick but missed it as Mitchell Marsh did not fall for his harmless outside-of-off-stump delivery.
Commentators on air defined the moment as a genius stuff. Pakistan's bowling legend Wasim Akram was also present in the commentary panel and he agreed that this was a genius piece of bowling.
Watch Hamza's magic delivery:
Wasim Akram described that Head was expecting an outswing but the ball swung back into him. "Travis Head was expecting the outswing but like you said it was a genius move by Mir Hamza. Look at the roll of the wrists and the ball swung back into him and middle-stump gone," Akram said on air
Hamza and Shaheen took the initial four wickets to put the hosts in massive trouble in their second reply. After Head's wicket, Australia were sent four down for just 16 and had a lead of 70. Shaheen and Hamza picked two wickets apiece. Shaheen jolted the WTC champions early with the wickets of Usman Khawaja and Marnus Labuschagne just before lunch before the Hamza show.
