Australia have revealed a worrying Achilles heel or two over the past couple of days even as Pakistan played once more like the team they can be when pieces of the jigsaw don't go missing. With many of their seasoned campaigners out of the picture – either through injury or lack of stomach for the big battle – the young talents have come to the fore, none more so than Taufeeq Umar and Faisal Iqbal. Umar's batting on day four was a revelation, especially the composure and skill he showed against Shane Warne. After having displayed admirable patience to wear down the quicks in the morning, he played some classy strokes either side of the wicket, none better than two straight-drives – bisected by a precise sweep - off Warne in an over.

Umar was as assured as Imran Nazir was the cat on the hot tin roof. Both played their part in a priceless opening stand of 90, but Nazir's footwork and airy wafts were the very antithesis of Umar's pragmatic approach. Younis Khan and Faisal Iqbal had shown the way with some glorious counter-attacking batting in the first innings and Umar carried the torch forward today.

Australia's fielding was ordinary at best with Nazir the beneficiary of two lapses this morning – a drop by Mark Waugh at second slip and a muffed stumping by Adam Gilchrist. There were sloppy moments in the outfield too and as the day wore on, frustration levels mounted. Warne's celebration after getting rid of Abdul Razzaq was so redolent with extreme relief that it would only have encouraged the opposition. As Mark Butcher (Headingley last year) and a quartet of New Zealand batsmen (Perth, a few months later) showed, these Australians can sometimes blink when the opposition stare back at them long enough.

Ultimately though, if Pakistan go on to register a historic victory, it will only be courtesy of Shoaib Akhtar's zephyr-like spell yesterday afternoon. If Matthew Hayden really did taunt him to the extent that he worked up a full head of steam, and then some, he did his team no favours at all. Fast bowlers are mercurial creatures that thrive on adrenaline and an indiscrete word from an opposing batsman can sometimes be all it takes to reap a deadly harvest. Shoaib's display was everything that quick bowling should be - fast, furious and deadly accurate. By the time the whirlwind tailed away, Australia had gone from 61 for 0 to 89 for 7 and a match that looked as dead as a dodo was suddenly bursting with rude health.

Australia lost in similar circumstances three years ago at Bridgetown and a reverse here could force the selectors into a radical rethink ahead of an Ashes series that might not be such a formality after all - provided England have learnt some lessons from the resurgent Pakistanis.

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