Pakistan, who had started the needing 137 runs with seven wickets remaining, looked set for a famous victory, needing just 68 runs with five wickets still in hand when Jason Gillespie and Glen McGrath were tossed the new ball.

However, Gillespie precipitated a dramatic slide after striking with his first delivery, as Rashid Latif (11) aimed a loose back-footed waft through the off-side and was caught behind (248 for six).

Saqlain Mushtaq (1) then inexplicably charged down the wicket to McGrath and drove straight towards Steve Waugh at short cover who, unlike his butter-fingered brother earlier in the day, clasped the ball safely (251 for seven).

Waqar Younis (1) lasted just two balls before he was also caught at the wicket off Gillespie (252 for eight) and Shoaib Akhtar (6) was then trapped leg-before as he padded away the penultimate ball of the session (259 for nine).

Pakistan had lost four wickets in the space of 22 balls, leaving them needing a further 57 runs for victory after the break, their hopes resting on the young shoulders of Faisal Iqbal, who has followed his first innings 88 with an unbeaten 30 thus far.

Earlier, after another early start, Australia, who had started with Warne and Glen McGrath, needed just 26 minutes to break through as Misbah-ul-Haq was caught in the covers off a leading edge after trying to work a Warne leg-break through the leg-side.

That gave Warne his tenth wicket of the game for the sixth time his career and the first major match haul since he took 11 for 229 at the Oval against England over a year ago.

Meanwhile, Younis Khan, who needed 15 balls to get off the mark in the morning, lived dangerously, narrowly survived a stumping chance of Warne, being dropped on 33 by Mark Waugh at second slip and then coming within inches of being caught at cover off a leading edge.

Astonishingly, Mark Waugh, normally the most assured of fielders, then spilled his third catch of the innings, another relatively simple chance at second slip off Faisal Iqbal, who had scored just 14 at the time.

The drops looked crucial as Younis and Faisal added 43 runs in 86 balls, inching Pakistan towards the 316 run victory target. Younis, starting to bat more fluently, brought up his eighth Test fifty with an imperious on-drive for four.

Steve Waugh had the option of taking the new ball after 19 overs in the morning but persisted instead with Warne, who was spinning his leg-breaks sharply on the fifth day pitch. However, it was a well-directed Warne flipper that ended Younis’s resistance, trapping the right-hander leg-before for 51.