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Hapless Pakistan mugged by pace cartel in Gabba's version of a dark alley

Malcolm Knox

Pakistan were 8-97 at stumps on day two in Brisbane in response to Australia's first innings total of 429. Australia started the day 3-288.

Woolloongabba has, for varying reasons at different periods of its history, been a dangerous place to go out at night. Pakistan's batsmen left the suburb traumatised on Friday night after suffering an after-dark rumbling from Josh Hazlewood, Jackson Bird and Mitchell Starc. The Brisbane constabulary might have protected them from a discombobulated pitch invader, but it stood back and turned a blind eye to the Australian fast bowling cartel.

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Aussies eye victory as Pakistan collapse

Steve Smith and Peter Handscomb helped the home side cruise to a 429-run total before the visitors limped to 97 at the cost of eight wickets on day two.

Here was another first for day-night Test cricket: a full-blown nocturnal batting collapse. Throughout the improved batting performances this year in Adelaide and Pakistan's run feast in the Emirates, word was spreading that batting under lights against the shinier shocking-pink lipstick 2016 ball was getting easier. A typically true Kevin Mitchell surface and lower than expected humidity were adding to this belief that the night was not to be feared.

In came Hazlewood, not a man to meet in a dark alley. Starc had huffed and puffed, but it was Hoff who blew the house down. The Australian method was played out in excelsis. Starc was the heavy, sending down a lot of very fast and very short bowling. But the one to watch was the quiet man in the shadows. Hazlewood moved in surgically, under cover of Starc's bluster, and his removal of Babar Azam and Younis Khan in successive deliveries was the incision that started the bleeding. When Bird's turn came, he needled away and came up with two crucial wickets, the captain Misbah-ul-Haq and the stubborn Sami Aslam, who faced more balls than seven other batsmen between them.

Starc was then on hand to begin the mop-up operations. Nathan Lyon was left underemployed, the one disappointment for a crowd that had turned him into a cult hero, their new Brisbane Lyon.

Seven wickets fell after dinner. Pakistan would have preferred to be sent to bed early. Their position subsided from a competitive 1-20 to an abject 8-97. No batsman could have called his effort competitive, save for Aslam and the wicketkeeper Sarfraz Ahmed, who met the aggression on its own terms.

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The Brisbane day-night Test match experience is different from Adelaide's. The temperature is balmy and the crowds stay to watch. Regardless of the claims Adelaide makes for its crowd numbers, the Gabba patrons stayed in their seats - or in the novelty swimming pool - and roared for more until the very last ball. The sound the bowl-shaped Gabba makes is more male, more primal than at other Australian grounds. Perhaps this goes some way to explaining the home team's success, uninterrupted since 1988.

So this is what Australia does in Brisbane, the most homey of its home grounds. What Eden Park is to the All Blacks, the Gabba is to the Australian cricket team. Although the main action took place at night, the atmosphere was reminiscent of those muggy afternoons in the old Gabbatoir when every delivery was packed with lethal potential. But just as there is no longer a sketchy Clem Jones pitch for batsmen to negotiate, it was not the fire and intimidation that did the job, but rather the combination of smarts from a cohesive and skilful pace cartel; not so much gang of thugs, more like organised crime.

For Pakistan, this has been a desperately disappointing twist to a tour that has been teetering on the brink. When Australia scored their 429, Pakistan's fielding was sometimes comical, their bowling tactics often bewildering, their catching only sporadically good, and their attitude submissive. But it was not until they batted that they showed how far off the pace they were. Their resilience will be fully tested now.

Australia might well ask if their summer would have turned out differently if a Brisbane Test had been scheduled in its usual place. But it is arguable that the post-Hobart purge was the best thing that could have happened to them. It was thanks to that reckoning that they have blooded and found instant success from Peter Handscomb and Matthew Renshaw. Being humbled forced Australia to face some unpleasant facts and search their reserves of character. Let's see if it does something similar for Pakistan.

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