WITH two days still left in this decisive Test, the massive 538-run target stares Australia in the face as they remain indecisive about whether to go for it or play a game for survival for the remaining six sessions in the match.

For Pakistan in this situation, the reins are in their hands to complete a series win if they bowl and field well and keep their firm grip just like they did in Australia’s first innings.

Here, having successfully played themselves into a position of strength from where they could come out with honours, it is important for Pakistan’s bowlers to keep the pressure on the Australian batsmen with incisive bowling and sharp fielding.

Babar Azam, unlucky not to get to his maiden Test hundred, showed promise and a lot of improvement to stay at the wicket for a longer period, as did Pakistan captain Sarfraz Ahmed, to boost the total.

Not many instances in the game are there for teams to end on a victorious note when chasing massive totals and records tell us that the maximum target achieved in the last innings is 418.

Mohammad Abbas, the key man for Pakistan, could once again penetrate the Australian batting who are already in awe of him for the way he has been bowling at them. Too much caution against him may not help because Abbas’s nagging accuracy would keep them pinned down. Any liberty that the Australian batsmen would attempt could be going after the spinners.

The current Australian side, with their first Test saviour Usman Khawaja on the injured list, face an impossible task to negotiate both pace and spin on a wearing pitch to avoid the inevitable.

At best Australia can only hope for luck to go their way and this could be only possible with a couple of long innings from their batsmen to take the Test deep into the fifth day, at least.

That is where a team batting fourth in a run chase starts to melt and that is where a result in favour of the bowling side begins to look a possibility. I will not bet on Australia to survive unless something extraordinary happens.

That brings me to that hilarious — and the silliest — run out of Azhar Ali who, after playing the shot through the third man region, got himself engaged in a conversation with his partner Asad Shafiq while hoping the ball will travel over the line for a boundary. Aussie wicket-keeper Tim Paine at that point swiftly collected the throw from the boundary and took the bails off to run out Azhar.

This certainly was a ridiculous piece of cricket by two senior batsmen who have played more than 120 Tests between them.

It can’t be sillier than this. Despite having watched Inzamam-ul-Haq and his series of run outs over the years in comical manner, this was something I had never witnessed in my entire life.

Published in Dawn, October 19th, 2018