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Shane Watson moved within sight of his maiden Test century and, in doing so, threatened to become the first Australian batsman since the Ashes finale in August to reach triple-figures. His unbroken opening stand of 177 with Simon Katich (77) served as the ultimate punishment for the Pakistanis, who squandered opportunities to dismiss both batsmen in the opening session.

Watson flirted unsuccessfully with centuries in Adelaide and Perth this summer, but showed few overt signs of nerves as he took his total to 90 at the tea break - the sixth time he has posted a half-century in 11 innings as opener. He began his innings with a series of imperious straight- and cover-drives off the bowling of Mohammad Aamer, then switched to square-of-the-wicket scoring channels in the afternoon session.

Watson was seldom troubled against Pakistan's faster bowlers, but encountered more difficulty reading and repelling the doosra of Saeed Ajmal. One such delivery 20 minutes before lunch brushed his outside edge, only for Misbah-ul-Haq to turf the chance at first slip. It was, to that point, Pakistan's third missed chance of a morning in which they all but handed Australia the ascendancy.

The other reprieves went the way of Katich, whose battles with timing and fluency in the first session gave way to more assured strokeplay after lunch. Katich's first life came when Mohammad Yousuf missed a run-out chance; an error compounded when Umar Akmal dropped him shortly after to a chest-high gully chance off the bowling of Aamer.

Katich found his groove in the second session and, along with Watson, commenced the task of setting a massive total for the Pakistanis to chase. Watson raised the duo's third century stand of the summer with a powerful cut to the boundary, and Katich continued the attack with a succession of drives to the boundary off Mohammad Asif. They plundered a combined 104 runs in the second session.

Asif's speeds hovered around the 130kph mark, and with little lateral movement to be found in the air or from the surface, he threatened the Australian batsmen infrequently. The same description applied for Abdur Rauf, making all the more mystifying the decision to omit the more seasoned and versatile Umar Gul on form grounds. Ajmal, Aamer and Imran Farhat, the occasional legspinner, proved the most penetrative of Pakistan's bowlers on a batting-friendly MCG surface.