Cummins and Starc swing series in last session blitz

What started quite literally as Pakistan Day as the nation celebrated its independence 66 years ago ended as a triumph for Australia pace pair Pat Cummins and Mitchell Starc who oversaw a stunning batting collapse in which the home team lost 7-20 in a chaotic final hour.

Against the backdrop of a holiday observing the birth of the world's first Islamic republic and adoption of the Lahore Resolution that formalised the country's independence from British rule, Pakistan were swept aside for 268 and trail Australia (who have all 10 second innings wickets intact) by 134 with two days to play.

Cummins had started the procession shortly before tea when, in contrast to his team's catching earlier in the day, he plucked a stunning return chance from Azhar Ali against the run of play to potentially alter the outcome of this match and the current stalemate series.

The captain, whose 5-56 today is the best return by an Australia fast bowler on the sub-continent since Josh Hazlewood's 6-67 against India at Bangalore five years ago, was falling away to his left in his follow-through as the lofted drive came back down the pitch and clung on to it in his right claw as he tumbled in the opposite direction.

It proved the spark a foot-weary Australia outfit so sorely needed, and the fortune that had deserted them across more than 250 preceding overs arrived in a flood.

After a frustrating first two sessions in which catches went begging and reviews went needlessly into the bin, he and Starc combined to rip apart the home team's middle and lower-orders as they tore through the final seven batters in barely 40 minutes.

Six of those victims were either bowled or lbw, as Starc snared 4-14 in a blinding 34-ball spell after tea.

So dominant were the duo as they got the ball to move late and at speed, Pakistan's last six players produced just seven runs between them and four of those came via a punch-drive boundary from number seven Sajid Khan with the field up.

At 2-192 midway through the day, less than 200 in arrears and with veteran Azhar Ali and captain Babar Azam comfortably set, Pakistan were eyeing a first innings lead albeit a day after the national frivolities had subsided.

But the freefall of wickets in the final hour saw the celebrations fall flat and by the time Babar was pinned lbw by Starc as clouds symbolically gathered over Lahore the crowd at Gadaffi Stadium were silent and Australia banked a 123-run advantage.

Australia's opening pair Usman Khawaja and David Warner then survived three overs in the gathering gloom and increased their team's lead by a further 11.

Until Starc's double-strike either side of the day's final drinks break, Cummins had appeared as the only Australia bowler likely to blow the game apart.

Starc had struggled for rhythm and consistency in his first four spells across a couple of days, and all-rounder Cameron Green was unable to find the same level of reverse swing he was able to generate in Karachi.

In addition, spin pair Nathan Lyon and Mitchell Swepson extracted little spin from the vulcanised surface that's slowly crumbling but steadfastly refused to crack, and they returned combined innings figures of 1-137 from 58 overs.

But then the pace pair found movement with the second new ball 30 overs old, but more significantly hit the optimum length that targeted the stumps and took their team's fluky catching out of the equation by repeatedly hitting the pegs.

To say the turnaround was unforeseen is something of an understatement, with Cummins forced to admit at day's end the final couple of hours today was "all a bit of a blur".

Australia certainly did their bit to ensure the festivities weren't sullied or subverted by failing to grasp a couple of crucial chances that came in the first two sessions of the national day, and also by wasting all three of their DRS reviews inside 90 overs.

While neither of those spurned opportunities could be classified as straightforward drops, the fact they were continuations on a theme stretching back to the drawn second Test at Karachi tends to compound culpability.

Both of them flew sharply past the left hand of lone slip fielder Steve Smith, and each of them were created by otherwise luckless spinners Lyon and Swepson.

The first was an attempted back cut by Azhar Ali (on 63) that was executed so late the ball had almost nestled in keeper Carey's gloves before it flashed past Smith who was instinctively leaning to his right in the expectation the stroke would find more of Azhar's blade.

The next came when second Test hero Babar had reached 21 and aimed a trademark drive at Lyon, only to find an outside edge that eluded Carey but was also too swift for Smith who threw his head back in disbelief that he was barely able to reach it with outstretched fingers.

Prior to this Test starting, Smith had revealed he was prepared to risk missing catches in the cordon in a trade-off for getting close enough to the bat to ensure edges carried but he may well be lamenting that strategy given today's chances came at reasonable height but unfeasible pace.

The fact he was able to snare a low catch at the height of this evening's carnage will do his peace of mind no end of good.

As if the inability to hang on to opportunities created by long-suffering bowlers – the cited cause for Australia's inability to convert its dominance at Karachi into a win – wasn't galling enough, there was the return to their historic fallibility with DRS protocols.

Having torched the first of their three available reviews late on day two when they referred a speculative shout against Azhar (on 25) off a ball from Cummins shown to be sailing well wide of leg stump, they squandered a second in almost identical circumstances in today's opening hour.

The only distinguishing differences this time were the identity of the bemused batter (Shafique, on 51) and the bowler (Starc) but the ball-tracking technology confirmed Australia's appeal wouldn't have been successful if a fourth stump was in position on the leg side.

At that point, it wasn't altogether clear if Australia were using the DRS features to determine whether balls would have hit the stumps or merely to gain greater clarity on how they'd managed to slip one or two past the bat.

It therefore took considerable courage for Cummins to put his team's last remaining review on the line when his close-in fielders and bowler Lyon went up for a catch behind off Shafique, with keeper Alex Carey only belatedly joining in their chorus.

Judging by the celebration that broke out when it was revealed the opener had feathered the ball from near the bottom of his blade, it was the vehemence shown by Travis Head at silly mid-off that convinced his understandably gun-shy skipper to try for third time lucky.

And while it helped rekindle the visitors' faith in their capacity to prudently deploy DRS, more crucially it delivered their first wicket in almost 60 overs of toil and raised hopes of more to follow, even if the new batter was coming off a career-high 196 at Karachi a week earlier.

But despite lunging nervously at the first ball he faced from Lyon, with his defensive push floating past Head to safety, it didn't take long for the Pakistan captain to show he planned to pick up where he left off.

Within six overs of arriving at the crease, and his team still more than 200 runs in arrears, Babar decided it was time to try and clear out a few of the close catchers so he skipped down the pitch and drop-kicked Lyon beyond the long-on rope.

At that point, the Australians could have been excused for foreseeing a reprise of the batting effort of a week hence given Babar's presence at the crease and the appearance of a pitch seemingly forged from concrete with a network of cracks painted upon its surface to create the illusion of cracking.

There was fleeting hope the story at Gaddafi Stadium might play out differently from the tour's first two chapters when Cummins' first ball of the day landed back of a length and veered violently away from Shafique who appeared not overly disconcerted while the Australians sported broad smiles.

It wasn't long before that good humour evaporated in the Lahore heat.

Shafique posted the fifth half-century of his eight Tests innings to date, an extraordinary start to the 22-year-old's Test tenure that would be even more remarkable if he had been able to convert more than one of those mini-milestones into a century.

Three overs later, he and Azhar reached their 100-run stand for the second wicket and no sooner had the parochial applause abated than it was amplified with home-town hero Azhar – playing the first of his 94 Tests in the city of his birth – also reached 50.

It seemed Pakistan's day of celebration would be crowned by dual centuries even before national treasure Babar – also making a maiden Test appearance in his native Lahore – had set foot in the arena.

But despite the good fortune gifted them, neither Shafique nor Azhar could push on and the stage was once more set for Babar to become the toast of his people as Pakistan partied.

That was until Australia's pace pair got the ball, and the Test match, to suddenly start reversing.

Pakistan squad: Babar Azam (c), Mohammad Rizwan (vc), Abdullah Shafique, Azhar Ali, Faheem Ashraf, Fawad Alam, Haris Rauf, Hasan Ali, Iftikhar Ahmed, Imam-ul-Haq, Mohammad Wasim Jnr, Naseem Shah, Nauman Ali, Sajid Khan, Saud Shakeel, Shaheen Shah Afridi, Shan Masood, Zahid Mahmood.

Australia Test squad: Pat Cummins (c), Ashton Agar, Scott Boland, Alex Carey, Cameron Green, Marcus Harris, Josh Hazlewood, Travis Head, Josh Inglis, Usman Khawaja, Marnus Labuschagne, Nathan Lyon, Mitchell Marsh, Steve Smith (vc), Mitchell Starc, Mark Steketee, Mitchell Swepson, David Warner.

First Test: Match drawn

March 12-16: Match drawn

March 21-25: Third Test, Lahore

Pakistan ODI and T20 squad: Babar Azam (c), Shadab Khan, Abdullah Shafique*, Asif Afridi, Asif Ali, Fakhar Zaman, Haider Ali, Haris Rauf, Hasan Ali, Iftikhar Ahmed, Imam-ul-Haq*, Khushdil Shah, Mohammad Haris, Zahid Mahmood, Mohammad Rizwan, Mohammad Wasim, Saud Shakeel*, Shaheen Afridi, Shahnawaz Dahani, Usman Qadir (*ODIs only)

Australia ODI and T20 squad: Aaron Finch (c), Sean Abbott, Ashton Agar, Jason Behrendorff, Alex Carey, Ben Dwarshuis, Nathan Ellis, Cameron Green, Travis Head, Josh Inglis, Marnus Labuschagne, Mitchell Marsh, Ben McDermott, Steve Smith, Marcus Stoinis, Adam Zampa

March 29: First ODI, Lahore

March 31: Second ODI, Lahore

April 2: Third ODI, Lahore

April 5: Only T20I, Lahore

All matches to be broadcast in Australia on Fox Cricket and Kayo Sports