Brothers Shaun and Mitch Marsh batted Australia into a strong position on day two of their four-day warm-up match against Pakistan A in Dubai.
Pakistan A’s Abid Ali added only two runs to his overnight score of 83 before being the fourth victim of the Tim Paine-Nathan Lyon combination. Abid Ali’s 85 came off 263 balls with four fours.
Lyon then picked up two of the remaining three wickets to fall in the next four overs as Pakistan were bowled out for 278 in the 100th over. Lyon’s exceptional innings figures of 39.1-5-103-8 (econ 2.62) were still shy of his first-class best, which was 8-50 in a Test for Australia against India at Bengaluru in 2017.
Usman Khawaja (36 off 131 balls, three fours) and Aaron Finch (54 off 91 balls, seven fours) put together an opening stand of 82 before Finch was caught behind by Mohammad Rizwan off Waqas Maqsood in the 31st over.
Khawaja departed with the score on 104 in the 42nd over, which brought brothers Shaun and Mitch Marsh together. The pair batted slowly and steadily, getting in good middle practice ahead of the first Test, and both ended the day with undefeated half-centuries to their name.
Shaun Marsh was on 54 off 142 balls (eight fours), while his brother Mitch Marsh was on 53 off 119 balls (five fours), the pair having added 103 runs for the third wicket.
Waqas Maqsood (1-28, econ 2.15) and Iftikhar Ahmed (1-67, econ 2.31) were the only wicket-takers for Pakistan A on the day.
Photo: Ryan Pierse/Getty Images
