KARACHI: Monday’s penultimate day of the absorbing three-match series turned out to be a memorable one for seasoned Pakistan batsman Younis Khan as the veteran right-hander became the first man to score a fifth fourth-innings Test century.

Pakistan, who were 230-2 at the Pallekele International Cricket Stadium in pursuit of a daunting 377-run target to win their first series in Sri Lanka since 2006, were once again served brilliantly by Younis.

The former captain, playing his 101st Test and 201st first-class game, completed his 30th hundred, which also enabled him to become the eighth Pakistani to score 50 or more centuries in first-class cricket.

Zaheer Abbas, the newly-inducted president of the International Cricket Council, leads the list for Pakistan with 108 centuries in 459 first-class matches, followed by Javed Miandad (80 in 402 matches), Majid Khan (73 in 410), Mushtaq Mohammad (72 in 502), Hanif Mohammad (55 in 238), Shafiq Ahmed (53 in 266) and Sadiq Mohammad (50 in 387).

Younis, currently 89 shy of surpassing Miandad’s Pakistan record of 8832 Test runs, went past India’s Sunil Gavaskar, Ricky Ponting of Australia, West Indies’ Ramnaresh Sarwan and Graeme Smith of South Africa who all scored centuries in the fourth innings of a Test match four times.

The previous instances of Younis reaching three figures in the fourth innings of a Test were between October 2007 and November 2010.

Against South Africa, Younis scored 126 at the National Stadium in Karachi in October 2007 when Pakistan were all out for 263 in their second innings to lose the opening Test by 160 runs.

A week later in the final match of the two-Test series against the Proteas, Younis made a match-saving 130 at the Gaddafi Stadium in Lahore when Pakistan ended up making 316-4 after being set an improbable 457.

Acting as the stand-in skipper against India at Kolkata’s Eden Garden in November 2007, Younis came to Pakistan’s rescue with an undefeated 107 as the visitors reached 214-4 after they were set a target of 345.

In Misbah-ul-Haq’s first Test as captain at the Dubai International Cricket Stadium in November 2010, Younis was the saviour with an unconquered 131 as Pakistan finished at 343-3 after South Africa had asked them to chase 451.

Published in Dawn, July 7th, 2015

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