Lahore, 22 March 2022: Fast bowlers Naseem Shah and Shaheen Shah Afridi equally shared eight wickets between them as Pakistan fought back to dismiss Australia for 391 on the second day of the third and deciding cricket Test for the Benaud-Qadir Trophy.
Naseem finished with four for 58 and Shaheen snapped up four for 79 as Australia lost their last five wickets for 50 runs in just over 13 overs to slip from 341 for five to 391 all out.
When stumps were drawn for the second day, Pakistan had reached 90 for the loss of Imam-ul-Haq (11). Opener Abdulah Shafique was batting on 45, while Azhar Ali, playing his 94th Test but first at the Gaddafi Stadium, was 30 not out.
Abdullah and Azhar have added 70 runs for the unfinished second wicket, while Pakistan are now 301 runs behind Australia’s first innings score.
Earlier, Australia resumed their first innings at the score of 232 for five with Cameron Green on 20 and Alex Carey on eight. The two batters took the attack to the Pakistan bowlers by taking the score to 320 for five with Green moving to 56 and Carey racing to 60.
However, soon into the afternoon session, the sixth wicket 135 runs partnership ended when Carey became left-arm spinner Nauman Ali’s only wicket of the innings at the score of 341. The wicketkeeper-batter scored 67 runs from 105 balls with seven fours.
Naseem and Shaheen, who until then had bowled their hearts out without any additional success to their yesterday’s two wickets apiece, saw a window of opportunity with Carey’s departure and pounced on the lower-order and succeeded in adding two more wickets each to their Monday’s haul.
Naseem ended Green’s fighting 163-ball 79 with a delivery that jagged back to uproot the middle stump. It was a delivery that would make any fast bowler proud as it was quick and reversed enough to hit the centre of the middle stump.
Mitchell Starc was the eighth batter out at the total of 369 when he tried to launch a counterattack to Shaheen and ended up holing out to Nauman at mid-off after scoring 13.
Nathan Lyon demise was no different to Green’s dismissal as the Australia off-spinner was beaten by pace as the ball cannoned into the stumps after brushing the pads.
Mitchell Swepson struck two fours in a seven-ball nine but Shaheen had the last laugh when he beat the last-man with a swinging and accurate yorker.
Pakistan began their reply during the second session of the play but were unable to get a flier as Imam was pinned in front of the wickets off Pat Cummins in the 13th over at the score of 20. This was Imam’s third successive failure after he has started the series with two centuries in the drawn Rawalpindi Test.
However, Abdullah and Azhar held the innings together and safely negotiated the day without being separating and in the meantime put on 70 runs for the second wicket to take the score to 90 for one.
Abdullah has struck six fours in his 117-ball 45, while Azhar has hit a six and a four in his 79-ball 30. Abdullah to date has scored 334 runs and has Usman Khawaja’s firmly in his sights who sits on top of the most successful batter of the series with 392 runs from one less innings.
Azhar has scored 235 runs in the series to date and is now 44 runs short of becoming the fifth Pakistan batter to complete 7,000 Test runs. Younis Khan leads the pack with 10,099 runs in 118 Tests and is followed by Javed Miandad (8,832 runs in 124 Tests), Inzamam-ul-Haq (8,829 runs in 119 Tests) and Mohammad Yousuf (7,530 in 90 Tests).
After 232 runs were scored on day one, 249 runs were scored on the second day as the wicket continued to play true and rewarded those who grinded themselves, showed patience and stuck to the very basics of the game.
