Dinner Australia A 9 for 73 (Khan 5-21) trail Pakistan 428 (Azam 157, Shafiq 119, Shah 53) by 355 runs

A penny (or cent) for the thoughts of Trevor Hohns and Justin Langer. The Australia A side, picked with such focus on filling the couple of batting vacancies in the Test side, slumped to 9 for 73 on the second day at Perth Stadium as Imran Khan, an unexpected selection for the tour, bagged 5 for 21.

The top score at dinner was from Cameron Bancroft, batting at No. 6, who wasn't part of this side until Nic Maddinson withdrew a few days ago. There were three ducks, including a first-baller for Joe Burns, while Usman Khawaja and Travis Head, who are both hoping for Test recalls, fell to the part-time offspin of Iftikhar Ahmed.

Pakistan were a bowler down in tragic circumstances following the death of 16-year-old Naseem Shah's mother with him given leave for the day. Pakistan were offered the opportunity to bring Mohammad Abbas into the team, but the game would have lost first-class status so they declined and continued with ten players. Players from both sides wore black armbands.

Pakistan's overnight century-makers, Asad Shafiq and Babar Azam, retired to allow others a hit and the total was lifted to 428 by the first interval with Yasir Shah making a half-century. Jhye Richardson finished with 3 for 79 but in 118 overs Australia A managed just seven wickets.

It was a bit different when Pakistan got the ball. Khan struck with his first delivery when he beat Burns' flat-footed drive and five overs later the incumbent, Marcus Harris, was cleaned up by a beauty from Shaheen Afridi.

Being dismissed by high-quality pace bowling with the pink ball is one thing, but falling to Ahmed won't have been in the script. Head gave him a sizeable helping hand when he cut a short ball to point before Khawaja edged to the keeper from round the wicket in a style of dismissal that has been a feature of his career. At least for Head he scored a century in the previous round of Sheffield Shield matches; for Khawaja it has been a difficult time in first-class cricket.

The last batsman in the line-up, seemingly, with an eye on the Gabba - the uncapped Will Pucovski - survived one huge appeal for caught behind off Khan before edging a delivery into the slips that climbed from short of a length.

Captain Alex Carey dragged on as he attempted to leave the ball, Michael Neser edged to slip while Richardson and Sean Abbott were pinned lbw to complete Khan's five-wicket haul in the blink of an eye.

At that point it appeared Australia A would be skittled inside a session but, even though the extra half hour was taken with them being nine down, they limped to the interval with Bancroft showing the technique to combat the challenge while No. 11 Riley Meredith had faced the third-most deliveries of the innings.