Australia v Pakistan 2023/24

Watch: Aamer Jamal bowls Alex Carey with unplayable ball en route to debut six-for

by Wisden Staff December 15, 2023 - 5:27am 3 minute read

Watch: Debutant Aamer Jamal produced an unplayable ball to bowl Alex Carey in the first Test of the three-match series, before going on to take the second-best figures for a Pakistan bowler on Test debut away from home.

Opting to bat in the first Test match of the Benaud-Qadir Trophy, at the Perth Stadium, Australia amassed 346-5 on day one. David Warner took centrestage, smashing 164 in 211 balls with 16 fours and four sixes, but he was the only one in the top five to make it past 41.

Australia had been 304-3 at one point, but Aamer Jamal kept them in the game with the wickets of Travis Head and Warner in the final session.

On the second morning, Mitchell Marsh (90) and Alex Carey (34) stretched the sixth-wicket partnership to 90. Then Jamal produced a peach that triggered a collapse.

Bowling from round the wicket to the left-handed Carey, Jamal pitched on a length, on an off-and-middle stump. Carey played along the line, but the ball moved away off the surface to beat the outside edge and hit off stump.

In a way, it was the perfect ball. Had it moved any less, it would have found an edge. Had it moved more, it would have perhaps missed the off stump.

From 411-5, Australia were bowled out for 487. Jamal finished with 6-111, the second-best figures by a Pakistan debutant in the opposition’s home, after Arif Butt’s 6-89 in Melbourne in 1964/65.

Jamal’s figures are also the sixth-best for Pakistan on men’s Test debut, after Mohammad Zahid (7-66), Mohammad Nazir (7-99), Abrar Ahmed (7-114), Bilal Asif (6-36), and Butt (6-89).