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Australia has embarrassed Pakistan on the second day of the Second Test to leave the tourists in real danger of losing to David Warner's first innings score alone.
Warner created history at the Adelaide Oval on Saturday as he spanked the Pakistan attack all over the stadium on his way to the second-highest test score ever produced by an Australian.
Warner’s stunning 335 not out was the highest score ever seen at the Adelaide Oval – and took him past the iconic 334-run mark of Sir Donald Bradman and Mark Taylor.
His powerful innings took Australia to 3/589 before captain Tim Paine declared, leaving Warner unbeaten on 335 and the records of Brian Lara (400 runs) and Matthew Hayden (380) safe for now.
Pakistan’s response was putrid.
Mitchell Starc ripped through the top order to leave the tourists 6/96 heading into day three, still needing another 293 runs to avoid the follow on.
Starc finished the day with 4/22.
With 14 wickets left in the test, Pakistan still needs another 493 runs to make Australia bat again.
Embarrassingly, Pakistan still needs another 239 runs to surpass Warner’s history-making innings.
Paine made the tough declaration call to prioritise the maximum chance of a result and bowling at twilight as more important, with wet weather forecast for later in the match.
Australia’s bowlers then responded in kind, showing all the discipline Pakistan lacked to nick off Pakistan’s top and middle order.
Josh Hazlewood and Pat Cummins both had one scalp to go with Starc’s 4-22. The left-armer’s spell was highlighted by a ripping catch from Paine, who dived one-handed to catch a cutting Iftikhar Ahmed on zero in front of first slip.
Pakistan’s ill-disciplined bowling suddenly looked very amateur and ugly.
But their poor bowling shouldn’t take away from Warner’s brilliance. He finished with the 10th-highest score in the 142-year history of Test cricket and the highest ever in Adelaide.
He hit 39 boundaries and one six and 80 of his runs came from cover drives as he ran hard throughout.
He passed his previous best mark of 253 just before tea and looked to the sky as he reached both 200 and 300 on what would have been Phillip Hughes’ 31st birthday.
Warner only appeared to show signs of fatigue closer to the tea break, notably when he was caught at gully on 226 from a Musa no-ball.
His tally for the international summer is now a ridiculous 776 runs at 388 after flying through the Twenty20 series and scoring a century in the first Test at the Gabba.
It comes in his first matches back at home for Australia since the ball- tampering scandal and subsequent 12-month ban.
Here’s how the drama unfolded.
Tyson Otto
Pakistan crashed to 6/89 in the final 20 minutes of play when Mitchell Starc struck with two wickets in four balls.
Starc dismissed Iftikhar Ahmed and Mohammed Rizwan to leave Pakistan reeling.
Pakistan was still exactly 500 runs behind Australia's first innings score when Iftikhar Ahmed was dismissed for 10.
The Pakistan batsman slashed at a widish delivery, but his top edge glided through to Tim Paine, who had to take a good catch diving to his right.
Starc followed it up by dismissing Rizwan for a three-ball duck.
It gave Starc figures of 4/22 in his 12th over.
Tyson Otto
Pakistan's hopes of avoiding the follow on are quickly disappearing after Mitchell Starc left the tourists four down in the night session.
Starc struck with his second scalp when he took the edge of Asad Shafiq, leaving the tourists 4/69.
Shafiq fell for just nine runs when he tried to push a Starc delivery on the front foot, but instead only managed to nick off behind the wicket to keeper Tim Paine.
Tyson Otto
Pakistan was reduced to 3/38 when Josh Hazlewood dismissed Shaan Masood to leave the tourists staring down an embarrassing defeat.
Masood fell for 19 runs when he edged behind to keeper Tim Paine.
It gave one wicket each to Australia's pace battery of Hazlewood, Mitchell Starc and Pat Cummins.
Pakistan was still 551 runs behind Australia's first innings score at the fall of the third wicket.
Tyson Otto
Aussie legend Shane Warne and former England Test captain Michael Vaughan got as loose as live TV gets during the main dinner break at the Adelaide Oval.
Poor Fox Cricket host Mark Howard was left trying to keep the broadcast on the rails when Warnie lost it during a brief discussion of nude sunbathing trend "perineum sunning".
The act involves presenting one's genitals to the sun with their legs outstretched.
It was too much for the Spin King to handle.
"Hang on, they’ve got no clothes on," Warne said, alarmed.
Howard responded by explaining the theory behind perineum sunning.
"That's the idea, the sun warms up various parts of the body," he said.
Warnie responded: "Oh, that's the old, the sun doesn't shine out of there…".
Warne then started giggling uncontrollably when Vaughan suggested participants of perineum sunning would have to put sunscreen on their personal areas.
"Can you imagine if we were to do it, Howie would be the person putting on the sunscreen," he said.
"H (Howard) would have to be the guy. Howie put some sunscreen on for me.
"I'm keeping it if Howie puts the sunscreen on."
The segment ended with Howard declaring both Vaughan and Warne would "never appear on again".
Still laughing, the broadcast went to an ad break with Warne heard in the background chuckling: "We're not on TV are we?"
Tyson Otto
Pakistan captain Azhar Ali left the tourists on the brink of collapse when he was removed by Pat Cummins for just nine.
Azhar Ali was squared up by a ball that had some added bounce and he was sent on his way when an outside edge travelled into the safe hands of Steve Smith at second slip.
Smith had to dive forward to take the catch and the on-field umpires initially reviewed the dismissal.
Replays showed Smith's fingers wrapped around the ball before it could hit the turf.
It left Pakistan in all sorts at 2/22.
Tyson Otto
Mitchell Starc has left Pakistan 1/3 after securing the key early wicket of Imam ul-Haq.
Imam ul-Haq slashed at a good line and length ball that took a leading edge and sailed straight to David Warner at gully.
Imam ul-Haq fell for just two runs.
Starc's breakthrough has eased the pressure on captain Tim Paine, who earlier made the controversial call to declare Australia's innings with David Warner 335 not out.
Pakistan limped to the dinner break at 1/, still 586 runs behind Australia's first innings score.
Tyson Otto
David Warner has walked off the Adelaide Oval as a history-maker, unbeaten on 335.
The blasting opener looked invincible as he climbed towards 350, but Aussie captain Tim Paine called he and Matt Wade back to the dressing rooms with the Aussies in the commanding position of 3/589 declared.
Warner's innings was officially brought to an end by the declaration on 335 from just 418 deliveries.
It is now the fourth highest unbeaten score in the history of test cricket and the 10th highest score in test cricket.
He walked off the ground after a series of records.
His knock of 335 is officially the second highest ever test score by an Aussie – second only to Matthew Hayden's 380, set in 2003.
Australia declared at the end of the same over where Warner jumped above Mark Taylor and Sir Donald Bradman's iconic scores of 334.
Warner earlier also broke Bradman's 88-year record for the highest score at the Adelaide Oval.
Tyson Otto
David Warner has become just the seventh Australian batsman in the history of test cricket to score 300 in an innings.
Warner reached the stunning milestone after just 389 balls – becoming the first ever player to reach 300 at the Adelaide Oval.
Warner's 300 saw him replace Sir Donald Bradman as the highest scoring player at the famous Adelaide venue.
Bradman scored his 299 not out 88 years ago.
Warner shortly after also went past Azhar Ali's record day-night test score of 302 not out, giving him the highest total in pink ball test matches.
"Take a bow David Warner, that is something very, very special," Aussie legend Shane Warne told Fox Cricket.
Tyson Otto
Steve Smith threw away his wicket on 34 when he tried to slog Shaheen Shah Afridi across the line of a good length ball.
Australia resumed from the tea break looking to score quickly and Smith paid for it with his wicket when he got an inside edge that flew wide to the left of keeper Mohammad Rizwan.
"That seemed to come out of nowhere," Aussie great Brendon Julian said in commentary for Fox Cricket.
The dismissal left Australia 3/490.
Tyson Otto
Steve Smith has become the fastest player to ever reach 7000 career test runs.
The Aussie star brought up the milestone as Australia pushed their first innings score towards 500 and David Warner pushed past 250.
Smith (34 not out) and David Warner (261 not out) guided Australia to 2/475 at the tea break.
Warner's performance on day two also took him past his previous highest test score of 253.
Smith reached 7000 runs in just 126 test innings – breaking England legend Wally Hammond's 73-year record.
Hammond was previously the fastest to 7000 runs after he hit the milestone in 1946.
Aussie legend Michael Hussey said he could soon replace Ricky Ponting in the history books of Australian cricket.
“He’s on track to be Australia’s greatest ever run-scorer,” Hussey told foxsports.com.au. “He’s certainly not old by any stretch of the imagination so he’s got plenty of years left in him.
“You would think he’d find it hard to keep averaging 80 or 90 (as he has this year) but you wouldn’t bet against him because he’s unbelievable.”
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