PAKISTAN carry with them a reputation of defying logic. When you expect them to perform poorly they excel and when you tag them with the best they disappoint you. Their rise and fall therefore has always been unpredictable, making them thus an outfit whose characteristics seldom show similarities with any other outfit in world cricket.

Their recent form when they visited Sri Lanka had not much to talk about except a century each in Tests by Younis Khan and Sarfraz Ahmed scored at Galle and Colombo respectively. The failure of the rest of them lost them the series.

The biggest disappointment was the failure of Pakistan’s most prolific batsman last year -- Misbah-ul-Haq -- and that of Asad Shafiq and Azhar Ali.

Speculations prior to the ongoing Test were not very encouraging either considering how poorly Pakistan performed in the limited-overs contests against Australia during the last couple of weeks.

But things do change as it did at the Dubai International Cricket Stadium where after early jitters on the first day Pakistan batsmen woke up to compete on equal terms for more than one and a half day’s play.

Helped no doubt by Younis Khan’s fighting hundred on Wednesday, the Pakistan batsmen did value the need to survive in the middle on Thursday to also add runs at a brisk rate to build up a lot more pressure for the Australians when their turn came up to bat.

Misbah and Asad displayed fine temperament as they both made valuable scores but it was young Sarfraz Ahmed who threw caution to the wind as he stroked his way to a 42-ball fifty and then reach his second century in Tests having faced 80 deliveries.

In no way orthodox in application when hoisting the ball in front of the wicket or attempting a sweep which Sarfraz relishes most, he appears in all respects a functional and innovative batsman when stepping out to hit a spinner or deftly driving and cutting the ball past the fielders.

It is not surprising then that in the last five Test matches the 27-year-old right-hander has been able to muster 508 runs (at an impressive average of 63.50) featuring four half-centuries and two successive hundreds. This certainly is no mean an achievement when one considers the performance of several specialist batsmen in the pack.

A befitting reply however is not beyond the Aussies’ reach when they resume their innings today on a wicket which despite some spin is docile to offer any considerable help to the Pakistan bowlers.

Published in Dawn, October 24th, 2014