Australia makes the perfect start to day three against Pakistan, but leaves Nathan Lyon one wicket away from joining an exclusive club.

• As it happened: Check out the live blog and wrap of the day’s play
• Scorecard from the first Test in Perth

Here are five quick hits from day three at Perth Stadium.

1. They’re called night watchmen for a reason

Test debutant Khurram Shahzad was given one of the most thankless tasks in world cricket when he was sent out on the second evening of the Test as night watchman, protecting superstar Babar Azam.

He made it through to the end of play without displaying the sort of technically sound defence you might expect of someone who’s been given that job.

After almost being run out by his more credentialed batting partner off the first ball of the day, Shahzad only last two more before playing barely in the area code of Pat Cummins’s third.

Middle and off stumps both felt the wrath of a cricket ball bowled in anger, and Shahzad, job done, was on his way back to the sheds.

2. Marsh cracks the code

Despite the early breakthrough, Pakistan seemed set to continue their obdurate resistance in the form of Babar Azam and Imam-ul-Haq.

The quartet of Pat Cummins, Josh Hazlewood, Nathan Lyon and Mitchell Starc had taken 375 wickets as a combination heading into the day’s play — third on the all-time list behind Moeen Ali, Jimmy Anderson, Stuart Broad and Ben Stokes (415) and Anderson, Broad, Joe Root and Stokes (387) for England.

But it was not one of the big four that made the telling breakthrough before lunch.

Local lad Mitch Marsh came tearing in and had Babar feeling outside off, feathering an edge through to Alex Carey.

It sparked something of a pre-lunch collapse, Pakistan losing 3-22 in quick order.

3. A Carey avoids a calamity … just

A stumping and a catch before lunch is nothing to sniff at for Alex Carey, but neither looked especially convincing.

First, the catch to dismiss Babar, while perfectly competent was taken right with the tips of his fingers as he neatly dived to his right side.

A regulation catch will go down in the scorebook, but it was a case of being millimetres from disaster.

Then, the stumping of Imam-ul-Haq was, on the face of it, perfectly sound.

But replays showed that the ball, which turned about eight degrees towards leg and bounced viciously, was just about pouched in the very end of the pouch.

Sure, they all count and the wicket at the end of the day is all that matters, but standards are high in the Test team, and with others waiting in the wings, Carey is definitely under the microscope.

Which is why his terrific stumping of Aamir Jamal later in the innings was such a timely reminder of his undoubted class.

4. Lyon in wait

With 496 Test wickets leading into the summer, Nathan Lyon wicket watch was always going to be a feature of this series.

But with this well balanced attack, it’s not often a case of one bowling taking a big bag of wickets, but the whole unit sharing the spoils.