Australia smash and dab on day four

A wearing Sydney pitch late in this Test match was supposed to provide Australia’s batters with a timely trial against world-class spin in the sort of challenging conditions they are likely to face in India next month.

The theory being that once the spin-friendly surface began to take turn, Pakistan’s feared leggie Yasir Shah – the world’s top-ranked Test wrist spinner – would pose the sort of threat that Australia must counter in their next Test assignment.

Quick single: Warner thrilled with record-breaking fifty

But if the way their top-order batters launched into Yasir with flagrant disrespect during some extraordinary ‘junk time’ hitting at the SCG this afternoon, then India’s spin pair Ravi Ashwin and Ravindra Jadeja might just shake a little in their boots.

For after Pakistan were knocked over 315 – a hefty 223 short of Australia’s first innings – their injury-hobbled bowling attack was belted out of the game as Australia ruthlessly chased a 3-0 series clean sweep.

By stumps, on another day in which a full session was lost to rain, Australia had stretched their advantage to 464 as David Warner, Usman Khawaja (opening in place of injured Matthew Renshaw) and Steve Smith blasted audacious half centuries.

And Peter Handscomb pushed his career batting average within a whisker of the mythical 100 when he cashed in on a listless, spiritless Pakistan who ended the day 1-55.

Needing a further 410 runs to steal a most unlikely win, or to survive around 100 overs to walk away with a draw.

Warner’s 55 from 27 deliveries included the fastest 50 by an Australia batter in Test cricket (off just 23 balls), two deliveries shy of the record held by Pakistan skipper Misbah-ul-Haq who watched today’s carnage from uncomfortably close quarters.

Quick single: Khawaja's fifty celebration ignites debate

When Warner departed, having miscued a mighty heave during which one hand came off the bat handle such was the brutal intent, Khawaja (not out 13 at the time) stepped up a gear.

Thrown into the role of opener for the second time this summer, with Renshaw withdrawn from all involvement in the remainder of this Test due to concussion suffered when struck on the helmet while fielding yesterday, Khawaja revelled in the breakneck scenario.

Thumping consecutive boundaries from Yasir to reach his 50 from a leisurely (by comparison) 74 balls in the over before his skipper did likewise at the other end.

Steve Smith’s milestone coming from just 38 balls as the pair savagely swept the full deliveries, pulled the short ones and pinged those of indeterminate length over long-on or extra cover as if already on limited-overs mode.

Smith was made to feel mild discomfort when struck amidships by a Wahab Riaz bounder when on three, and to a greater degree when he was given out amid some conjecture on 59.

With the skipper of the view he had made no contact with an attempted sweep from Yasir, an assessment corroborated by on-field umpire S Ravi but rejected on a review instituted by Pakistan that indicated the barest brush of the batting glove on the way into the keeper’s.

That paved the way for Handscomb to make an early start on the T20 skills he will be asked to revive from next week when he returns to the KFC Big Bash League with the Melbourne Stars.

Innovating and infuriating in equal measure as he raced to 40 from 25 balls, the fact he remained unbeaten when Smith called the declaration an hour before stumps lifting his Test batting average to 99.75.

The contempt with which the Australians treated Yasir, called on to open the bowling in the absence of strike bowler Mohammad Amir while himself nursing a hamstring injury, suggested spin now holds no fears for the Australians.

But the similarity between the physically struggling, mentally beaten leggie and the bowler who baffled England during the previous year was as erroneous as any comparison between Australia’s innings and Test match batting.

And what they can expect to find waiting for them in India from next month.

The 2(dec)-241 they bludgeoned from 32 overs of fodder represented the fastest scoring rate in any Test innings comprising more than 100 deliveries.

And Yasir’s final figures of 1-124 from 14 overs was the most expensive spell of that duration ever delivered in Test cricket, comfortably erasing Bob Willis’s 1-99 from 14 overs (including a maiden) against the West Indies at Old Trafford in 1980.

It will remain an unfair blight on the career epitaph of a fine bowler, but one who has struggled to make any impression in Australia where his lack of variety and inability to find a bowling partner able to sustain pressure from the other end have rendered him ineffectual.

Much like Pakistan’s batting in this match, with the notable exceptions of opener Azhar Ali (run out for 71 yesterday and 11 not out at stumps) and veteran former skipper Younus Khan who batted through until the end of his team’s innings, unbowed on 175.

It was a masterful knock from the 39-year-old and the second-highest total by a Pakistan batter in Australia after Azhar’s 205no in Melbourne a week earlier.

Without that pair, Pakistan would already be contemplating the upcoming five-match VB One-Day International series as no other player managed to reach 20.

Although Yasir, who was called into action as night watchman this evening when debutant opener Sharjeel Khan limply holed out mid-on with three overs remaining in the day, did show some of the application his more credentialled batting teammates had clearly lacked.

After the morning session was lost to steady rain, Younus and Yasir frustrated Australia’s bowlers for an hour as their ninth-wicket partnership contributed 51 runs and lifted their team within 23 runs of the follow-on mark.

But when Yasir finally nicked off to second slip after a defiant 10, Imran Khan proved about as combative with the bat as he had proved with the ball over previous days and had his stumps rattled for a second-ball duck.

Which left Australia with the decision of how long they wanted to belt Pakistan’s jaded bowlers, minus Amir who reportedly suffered a side strain during the morning warm-up, around the ears before setting them a distant target.

Even less gettable than the 490 that was assigned them in Brisbane a month ago, and which they came within 40 runs of reaching.

But that was back in the days when they had fit players, self-belief and the portent of a potent spin weapon.