DUBAI: Australia’s openers survived a torrid 13 over spell to finish on 30 without loss after Haris Sohail’s maiden century guided Pakistan to 482 on the second day of the first Test in Dubai on Monday.
Usman Khawaja was unbeaten on 17 and debutant Aaron Finch was 13 not out as Australia negotiated some tight spin bowling from Pakistan on a Dubai International Cricket Stadium pitch which has started to show signs of turn.
Pakistan unleashed four overs from leg-spinner Yasir Shah and a combined three from off-spinners Mohammad Hafeez and debutant Bilal Asif, but both Australian openers looked assured.
Australia trail Pakistan by 452 runs with all wickets intact, but they face a big battle ahead of them with Yasir expected to pose the main threat after the tourists toiled in the field for nearly two days under hot and humid conditions on a flat wicket.A sparkling hundred from left-hander Haris and a polished 80 from Asad Shafiq enabled Pakistan to build on an overnight score of 255 for three, with nightwatchman Mohammad Abbas (1) the only wicket to fall in the morning session.
Haris’s patient six-hour knock featured eight fours and two sixes, as he added 150 for the fifth wicket with Asad who was unlucky to miss out on his 10th century.
The pair frustrated the Australian attack with some solid batting as Pakistan reached 329-4 at lunch, with both men in sight of centuries.
But Asad fell to the occasional leg-spin of Marnus Labuschagne minutes before tea as he edged a turning ball to wicket-keeper Tim Paine for the debutant’s first wicket.
Asad hit nine boundaries and a six in his 278 minutes at the crease.
Haris, however, did get to three figures, hitting a six off spinner Jon Holland before cutting him to third man for two to complete his century.
He was finally dismissed by Nathan Lyon, caught behind as he tried to cut the off-spinner, having easily surpassed his previous best of 76 made against Sri Lanka in Abu Dhabi last year.
Haris was pleased to go on and post a big score after regularly making several promising starts before getting out earlier in the year.
“It’s always a big pride to score a Test hundred for your country and I have worked really hard to reach this far after I was got out for 30-40 runs on the tour of England [in May-June this year],” Haris said. “So I wanted to get out of that panic situation and I am happy that I have done that today. I can’t explain how delighted I am to score my first Test hundred.”
Haris, who was sidelined for a two-year period with a knee injury in 2015: further said: “My mother told me last night that she wanted to see me scoring a Test century.”
Pakistan lost their last six wickets for 72 runs, including the run outs of Babar Azam (4) and skipper Sarfraz Ahmed for 15.
Fast bowler Peter Siddle was the pick of the bowlers with 3-58 while Lyon finished with 2-114 from 52 overs. Holland, Labuschagne and Mitchell Starc took a wicket each.
Scoreboard
PAKISTAN (1st Innings, overnight 255-3):
Imam-ul-Haq c Paine b Lyon 76
Mohammad Hafeez lbw b Siddle 126
Azhar Ali c Starc b Holland 18
Haris Sohail c Paine b Lyon 110
Mohammad Abbas b Siddle 1
Asad Shafiq c Paine b Labuschagne 80
Babar Azam run out 4
Sarfraz Ahmed run out 15
Bilal Asif b Siddle 12
Wahab Riaz not out 7
Yasir Shah c Paine b Starc 3
EXTRAS (B-6, LB-21, NB-3) 30
TOTAL (all out, 164.2 overs) 482
FALL OF WKTS: 1-205, 2-222, 3-244, 4-260, 5-410, 6-418, 7-456, 8-470, 9-473.
BOWLING: Starc 36.2-11-90-1 (2nb); Siddle 29-11-58-3; Lyon 52-12-114-2; Holland 29-1-126-1; Labuschagne 8-0-29-1; M.R. Marsh 10-0-38-0 (1nb).
AUSTRALIA (1st Innings):
U.T. Khawaja not out 17
A. Finch not out 13
EXTRAS 0
TOTAL (for no wkt, 13 overs) 30
TO BAT: S.E. Marsh, T.M. Head, M.R. Marsh, M. Labuschagne, T.D. Paine, M.A. Starc, P.M. Siddle, N.M. Lyon, J. Holland
BOWLING (to-date): Mohammad Abbas 4-1-9-0; Wahab Riaz 2-0-6-0; Yasir Shah 4-0-14-0; Hafeez 2-1-1-0; Bilal Asif 1-1-0-0
Published in Dawn, October 9th, 2018
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