WATCH: Father Geoff, Brother Shaun in Disbelief as Agha Salman’s one-handed Stunner Denies Mitchell Marsh a Century

Mitchell Marsh batting and his family cheering from the stands have been a common scene this Australian summer. His father Geoff and elder brother Shaun were excitingly waiting for his 4^th Test hundred on Thursday after his match-saving partnership with Steve Smith that put Australia back in the driving seat. But the hopes of the Marsh family and numerous Aussie supporters were shattered when Mir Hamza dismissed Mitchell for 96.

Batting on 20, Marsh got a life as Abdullah Shafique dropped a regulation catch at the first slip. There was no looking back since then as he joined forces with the Australian vice-captain to frustrate the visitors.

The crowd was on its toes when Marsh crossed the 90-run mark. However, he eventually fell four runs short of a deserved century as Aghan Salman took a superb one-handed diving catch at slips to remove the all-arounder off Hamza’s delivery.

Geoff and Shaun Marsh were taken aback by the dismissal. However, they applauded for Micthell’s heroics which came after a horrific top-order collapse in the morning session.

After Cummins took 5-48 and Nathan Lyon 4-73 to dismiss Pakistan, Australia needed to negotiate a tricky 15 minutes of the morning session. But Usman Khawaja was out for a duck second ball, caught behind by Mohammad Rizwan off bowling spearhead Afridi.

The same combination struck again when Marnus Labuschagne edged down the leg-side on five as the hosts slumped to 6-2 at lunch. When they returned, David Warner let rip with a drive to the boundary off Afridi, but he didn’t last, dragging a Mir Hamza ball on to his stumps on six.

He received a standing ovation as he walked off for the last time as a batsman at the Melbourne Cricket Ground, with the third Test in Sydney set to be the last of his long career.

Things got worse for the hosts when Travis Head was bowled by Hamza’s inswinging yorker next delivery to leave Australia in disarray at 16-4. But Marsh saw off the hat-trick ball and along with Smith dug in to take the sting out of the attack.

(With Agency Inputs)