Pakistan blew the "perfect start" to the MCG Test and gifted David Warner a life with a disastrous dropped catch.
Pakistan blew the "perfect start" to the MCG Test and gifted David Warner a life with a disastrous dropped catch.
?It was in the third over when the Australian opener edged a Shaheen Afridi delivery and looked to be on his way back to the pavilion for 2.
But ?Abdullah Shafiqu made a mess of it at first slip, somehow missing the ball with his hands and grassing the opportunity.
LIVE UPDATES: Follow the action from Australia vs Pakistan MCG Test
?READ MORE: Raiders recruit dead after Christmas eve accident
READ MORE: Tubby's issue as Khawaja rips ICC 'double standards'
"?Can you believe it?" Adam Gilchrist proclaimed on Fox Cricket.
"A big life for Warner. That is the worst possible start for Pakistan, you can't be giving these sort of chances to this batting line-up.
"That's as simple as it gets."?
Pakistan skipper Shan Masood won the toss and made the bold decision to bowl first, which would have looked genius if Warner was out for 2.?
New Zealand great Ian Smith was in disbelief.
"I wonder how closely he watched it, because it hit him above his hand area," Smith said.
"?I think he lost track of looking at the ball. You've just got to catch the ball, it's a regulation outside edge.
"?It looked like a guy who is fielding in the slips for the first time.
"(Pakistan) won the toss and bowled early for that very reason, they wanted to create early opportunities.? That would have been a perfect start."
Shafiqu also dropped Warner in the first Test in Perth, although had to run backwards to attempt that one.
Mark Waugh - known as one of the best slips fielders of all time - said ?Shafiqu shouldn't be grassing those chances at Test level.
"?That's as easy a slips catch as you will get at this level," Waugh said.
"That hasn't gone quickly.?"
Only a couple of deliveries later ?Warner creamed a driver to the boundary.
Luckily for Shafiqu, Warner was caught for 38 on the stroke of lunch.?