Australia skittled Pakistan on a treacherous Perth pitch to record a thumping 360-run victory in the first Test inside four days with Nathan Lyon achieving the elusive landmark of 500 Test wickets on Sunday.

Pakistan were blown away for 89 all out in 30.2 overs in the final session on the fourth day for their 15th consecutive Test defeat in Australia after the home team set up a
daunting 450-run target when they declared their second innings at 233/5 around half an hour after lunch.

“Great start to the summer, everything fell into place,” Australia captain Pat Cummins said at the presentation ceremony.

“We’ve played a lot of cricket, so the build-up was very chilled and relaxed. No hiccups this week, it’s all gone to the plan.”

Pakistan’s top-order batters crumbled against the relentless pace of Mitchell Starc, Josh Hazlewood and captain Cummins on a wicket that had variable bounce with plenty of batters taking body blows.

Hazlewood and Starc snared six wickets between them, while Cummins nicely set up former Pakistan captain Babar Azam (14) before finding the outside edge of his bat as the visitors had no answer to Australia’s nippy fast bowling.

Lyon reached the 500-wicket landmark when he successfully went for a leg before wicket referral against Faheem Ashraf.

The off-spinner raised the ball to the applause of the Perth crowd.

“I was pretty confident about it,” Lyon said of the referral.

Lyon said the match victory doubled his delight. “It’s something I’m pretty proud of,” he said. “As a young kid growing up in country New South Wales, 500 wickets is a long way away. A lot of hard work... 500 wickets is pretty amazing but to do it here makes it better.”