Smith thrills again but draw looms

It seems there are few things more certain than Steve Smith posting a Test century when he sets foot on the MCG, but a drawn result on tomorrow’s final day in Melbourne might be one of them.

With play suspended this afternoon just moments after Smith had reached his 17th Test ton, and third in as many Tests at the historic venue, play was suspended ahead of a rain storm that put paid to day four.

Which saw Smith concede at day’s end that a result was a fleeting prospect given that more than a day has already been lost to Melbourne’s changeable weather and the MCG pitch has remained contrastingly unblemished.

As reflected by a scoreboard that reveals a match still stuck firmly in its first innings phase at a time when a Test should traditionally be approaching its denouement.

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With Australia to resume on the final day, forecast to be largely fine, at 6-465 and just 22 runs in front of Pakistan with a maximum of around 100 overs left to play.

Smith’s hundred, on a ground where he is rapidly establishing himself as impregnable, was as much a highlight of a day as devoid of context as it was continuity as Usman Khawaja’s failure to reach three figures was a disappointment.

At the close of day three, Australia vice-captain David Warner was asked how Khawaja might spend his evening given he went to stumps unbeaten on 95 and could be excused for suffering a restless night with a Test century beckoning.

Warner instantly burst into laughter and observed that it would not be a consideration for his former New South Wales teammate who, he claimed, is so innately laid back that he would not give the impending milestone a second, or a second’s worth of, thought.

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And there was a distinct air of the languid when Khawaja, having advanced his score to 97, aimed a flashing drive with feet planted at a delivery from Wahab Riaz that was sufficiently wide to have been safely left alone.

An assessment that appeared to weigh heavily upon Khawaja such was the time it took to drag himself from the centre to the exit ramp as 97 flashed alongside his name on the scoreboard for the second time this Test summer.

His frustration at squandering such a gift-wrapped opportunity to post a second consecutive MCG Test hundred would hardly have been quelled when he settled into his chair to watch his replacement at the crease.

Welcomed to his maiden Boxing Day Test appearance by a smattering of polite applause at his home ground, Peter Handscomb wasted no time in conveying his comfort with the familiar surroundings.

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Despite conceding a 12-run head start to Smith who was more than an hour into his innings, Handscomb found his groove from the outset and was the dominant partner in the pair’s 50-run partnership.

In which he scored 33 compared to the skipper’s 16, on his way to his third consecutive half-century from as many Test innings in what already looms as an international career of some significance.

The previous Australian batsman to post a hat-trick of 50-plus scores in his first three Test knocks was Michael Bevan, whose Test tenure was restricted to just 15 more appearances after that run and who became a byword for the limited-overs format instead.

It would seem that 25-year-old Handscomb is set to become the inverse of Bevan, in light of the ease and acumen with which he’s settled into Test cricket and Australia’s problematic middle-order.

It therefore came as an abject shock to spectators, commentators and Handscomb himself when he latched on to a wide half volley from the hitherto benign Sohail Khan and contrived to slice a waist high catch to backward point.

By that stage, Smith was ominously set on 47, the deficit had dwindled to just 69 and the hybrid of uninterrupted sunshine and a hard new ball that was showing the same reluctance to misbehave as its predecessor meant the game was loaded in Australia’s favour.

Which still did little to ease the anxiety of Nic Maddinson, who went to the wicket accompanied by a Test aggregate of five, average of 1.66 and a burden of expectation he must have felt was assessable in hundredweights.

That load lightened slightly with the deft leg glanced boundary that brought him a new Test high score (five), the skittish edge through the slips cordon that carried him to double figures and the fortuitous fend-off from a Riaz bouncer that took him to 20.

But just as batting at Test level was starting to look a little less intimidating, Pakistan skipper Misba-ul-Haq orchestrated a switch in tactics that brought Maddinson undone and the critics back to their selectorial soapboxes.

Leg-spinner Yasir Shah, who had been largely ineffectual since his second-over dismissal of opener Matthew Renshaw on a pitch offering neither spin nor variable bounce, was bequeathed an altered field with an additional man saving a single on the off side.

The premise being that left-handed Maddinson would then be compelled to manufacture strokes against the notional spin in search of that sizeable score he so nakedly craved, with the accompanying risk factor commensurately increased.

It took but three deliveries for it to bring a dividend, Maddinson skipping down the pitch in an attempt to find an opening only to play inside a delivery that went straight on and would have been stumped by a metre or more if he had not been clean bowled.

Maddinson’s 22 might not be sufficient to keep him in the squad for next week’s third Commonwealth Bank Test in Sydney that will be named at game’s end, and is expected to include allrounder Hilton Cartwright who has been released from this match to return to BBL duties with the Perth Scorchers.

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But it did create a timely opening for keeper Matthew Wade who, like Maddinson, has struggled to post a meaningful score since being drafted back into the Test fold in the wake of the seismic loss to South Africa in Hobart that reshaped Australia’s cricket landscape.

As the storm front finally aligned on their path towards downtown Jolimont, Wade had the best part of an hour during which he might surpass his combined tally of 21 runs from his four prior Test innings (one of which was unbeaten).

The left-hander had accumulated an uncharacteristically watchful eight from more than twice as many balls faced when he was left shaken by a thunderous blow that brought the game to a halt for several minutes.

Not one landed upon Wade, but rather a vicious pull shot to a half-tracker from Yasir that smashed into the top of the protective helmet mercifully worn by Azhar Ali at short leg and looped to leg gully where it was caught by Babar Azam.

Under the ICC’s altered playing conditions that come into effect next year, that would have accounted for Wade’s wicket.

But as it stands, batters can’t be given out when the ball rebounds from a fielder’s protective wear which was rightly a secondary consideration as teammates, opponents and medical staff gathered around Azhar who remained conscious but stunned on the MCG turf.

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Wade, a close and deeply affected friend of the late Phillip Hughes, was consoled by Pakistan veteran Younus Khan before the contest resumed with Azhar resting in the rooms.

Having faced nine more balls, Wade was likewise returning to the sheds having misjudged the width on offer for a cut shot and the resultant edge smartly snared by Shafiq Asad at slip.

A welcome change from a Pakistan team that has squandered countless chances throughout this and previous innings through its slipshod catching and stubborn refusal to remedy the rash of no-balls. 

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