The Australian attack bowled Pakistan for 240 on the first day of the first Test, played at the Gabba, Brisbane. Despite a solid start, the visitors couldn’t defy the sudden collapse on Thursday; losing 4 wickets within three runs.
Opting to bat first, Pakistan openers Shan Masood and Azhar Ali were off to a decent beginning side a and kept the Australian bowlers at bay. They went into the lunch break with a score of 57 without losing any wicket.
This is the first time that Australia failed to take a wicket in the first session of a match being played at the Gabba. However, as soon as the second session resumed, the table turned for the visitors as the Aussies bounced back and reduced Pakistan to 94/5.
Pakistan went from 75/0 to 78/4 in a span of just 39 balls. Masood (27) was sent back by Pat Cummins while Ali (39) and Babar Azam (1) were dismissed by Josh Hazelwood. Haris Sohail (1) and Iftikhar Ahmed (7) were scalped by Mitchell Starc and Nathan Lyon respectively.
Asad Shafiq and Mohammad Rizwan then joined each other in the middle for a 49-run stand. Cummins, then, sent back Rizwan (37) in the 55th over to reduce the visitors to 143/6.
Yasir Shah then got together with Shafiq and stitched together a partnership of 84 runs. It was finally ended by Mitchell Starc as he bowled Shah (26) in the 81st over.
After Shah's dismissal, Starc got back-to-back wickets of Shaheen Afridi (0) and Shafiq (76) to leave Pakistan at 227/9.
Starc picked up the last wicket to bundle out Pakistan for 240. The left-armer ended up taking four wickets for Australia while Shafiq top-scored with 76 runs for Pakistan.