Mitchell Starc fumes at umpire as horror Pakistan series continues
Mitchell Starc was left fuming at umpire Ahsan Raza on the second day of the third Test against Pakistan as the Aussie bowler's frustrations boiled over.
Pakistan roared back to life in the series decider on Tuesday, going to stumps at 1-90 after bowling Australia out for 391.
'PRETTY ORDINARY': Aussie greats roast farcical scenes in Pakistan
DON'T DO IT': The $80 plea to save Usman Khawaja's incredible run
A reverse swing masterclass from Naseem Shah and a gritty top-order batting effort catapulted Pakistan back into the victory mix and left the Aussies scratching their heads.
Australia were cruising at 5-341 midway through the second day before Shah helped spark a collapse of 5-50.
Imam ul-Haq (11) was the only Pakistan batsman to fall as Abdullah Shafique (45) and Azhar Ali (30) went to stumps unbeaten.
Pat Cummins managed to remove Imam lbw, but the Aussie bowlers once again endured a frustrating day in the field.
Starc was particularly ineffective and was left fuming when Raza appeared to warn him for running on the pitch.
The Aussie was heard arguing with Raza at the bowler's end and threw his arms in the air in disbelief at the end of the over.
“I don’t think he was running on the pitch,” former Pakistan captain Waqar Younis said in commentary.
Starc only has three wickets in the series at an average of 65.66, with a strike rate over 145.
“So far we’ve only seen maybe once or twice in this series he really got going and running in really well and hitting the pitch really hard,” Waqar said of Starc.
“The bigger issue for me is he’s not getting swing with the new ball which he normally gets.
“It is hard for me to tell what’s going wrong but because he’s played so much cricket he should know how his body works.”
Pakistan hit back on second day of third Test
Cameron Green (79 off 163 balls) and Alex Carey (67 off 105 balls) combined for a 135-run stand to put Australia in the box seat.
But when Carey was trapped lbw by spinner Nauman Ali and Green was bowled by Shah, Pakistan roared back into the match.
The dismissal of Green was particularly impressive.
Shah made the most of the reverse swing to sneak one inside the bat and pad of Green and rattle the off stump.
Green has built a series of important partnerships in his recent Test knocks, and it's something that has helped his confidence early in an innings.
"Something I found recently that helped is looking at the partnership score instead of my own score," Green said.
"Firstly it takes a bit of pressure off myself when I look up at the scoreboard and I'm only on 12.
"If the partnership is on 30, you feel calmer. That's what I've been trying to do recently, focus on partnerships and my own score will gradually increase. That's what me and Alex did."
In his last six Test innings dating back to the Ashes, Green has struck scores of 74, 74, 23, 48, 28, and 79.
with AAP
Click here to sign up to our newsletter for all the latest and breaking stories from Australia and around the world.
