RAWALPINDI: With Mon­day’s morning session wiped out due to a wet outfield following overnight rain, any chances of a result in Pakistan’s first Test on home soil against Australia in 24 years had been significantly diminished.

If the home side were to win the first game of their three-Test series, they needed to quickly bowl out the Aussies in their first innings. On a dead pitch offering nothing to the bowlers, it proved impossible even if leg-spinner Nauman Ali added three wickets to take his tally to four.

When bad light ended play three overs early on the penultimate day, Australia were 449-7 — 27 behind Pakistan’s first innings total of 476-4 declared — with the Test headed for a stalemate.

Nauman, however, was hopeful Pakistan could dismiss Australia early on Tuesday’s final day. But even then it would require a remarkable turnaround on an exceedingly batting-friendly wicket to produce a result.

“Tomorrow we’d try to bowl them out as quickly as possible and I’m optimistic of a five-wicket haul,” Nauman told reporters after finishing the day on 4-107.

After two wickets had fallen on each of the first three days of the Test, Pakistan got five on Monday but that wasn’t down to the pitch contributing much but largely due to Australian batters trying to get quick runs on the board.

“The ball was not turning much from the middle, so I tried to bowl into the rough areas and use those patches, which earned me a couple of wickets,” the 35-year-old Nauman reasoned.

Having resumed on 271-2, runs came easy for Australia with Marnus Labuschagne (90) and Steve Smith (78) scoring half-centuries. Cameron Green fell just short when he was dismissed for 48. Only Alex Carey (19) and Travis Head (eight) failed in a batter-dominated test match.

Mitchell Starc was on 12 at the close of play with skipper Pat Cummins on four at the other end.

“It’s a pretty benign wicket. There’s not a great deal of pace and bounce in it for the seamers, that’s for sure,” vice-captain Smith told reporters. “I thought it would break up a little bit more and probably turn a bit more from the start, but it probably hasn’t done so.”

With play starting after lunch, Australia had progressed to 288 when Pakistan took the second new ball after 80 overs -- and were instantly rewarded.

Left-arm paceman Shaheen Shah Afridi (1-80) induced a loose drive from Labuschagne off a wide delivery and Abdullah Shafique dived to his right to take a sharp catch in the lone slip.

Labuschagne hit 12 boundaries in his knock and was the second Australian batter to depart in the 90s, after Pakistan-born opener Usman Khawaja (97).

Nauman had dismissed Khwaja on Sunday and got his first wicket on Monday when Head’s attempted cut shot only got an edge which was smartly taken by wicket-keeper Mohammad Rizwan.

Head, the player of the series in Australia’s 4-0 drubbing of England in the Ashes earlier this year, had got his runs off two boundaries.

Green and Smith frustrated Pakistan in an 81-run stand before Nauman struck to send them both back to the dressing room.

Having hit Nauman for two boundaries in one over, Green could only top-edge a sweep shot to Iftikhar Ahmed at short fine leg.

With Nauman consistently bowling outside the leg stump, he then got the prized wicket of Smith whose attempted sweep caught his gloves on the way to Rizwan.

Smith said he was disappointed on missing out on a first Test century since the Ashes in 2019. He hit eight fours during his 196-ball stay.

“I was pretty annoyed with the way I got out,” he said. “I got a bit greedy with the field they had set. Disappointed to have worked pretty hard and got myself in a nice position to go on and get a big score.”

In fading light, Carey was the final wicket to fall on the day when pacer Naseem Shah (1-89) hit his off-stump.

Pakistan captain Babar Azam brought himself on for the final over of the day but he was unable to trouble Starc or Cummins.

Scoreboard

PAKISTAN (1st innings) 476-4 declared AUSTRALIA (1st innings; overnight 271-2): Usman Khawaja c Imam b Nauman 97 D. Warner b Sajid 68 M. Labuschagne c Abdullah b Shaheen 90 S. Smith c Rizwan Nauman 78 T. Head c Rizwan b Nauman 8 C. Green c Iftikhar b Nauman 48 A. Carey b Naseem 19 M. Starc not out 12 P. Cummins not out 4 EXTRAS (B-6, LB-11, NB-8) 25 TOTAL (for seven wkts, 137 overs) 449 FALL OF WICKETS: 1-156 (Warner), 2-203 (Khawaja), 3-311 (Labuschagne), 4-326 (Head), 5-407 (Green), 6-422 (Smith), 7-444 (Carey). TO BAT: N. Lyon, J. Hazlewood BOWLING: Sajid 45-9-122-1, Naseem 21-2-89-1 (nb4), Shaheen 28-5-80-1 (nb3), Nauman 37-8-107-4 (nb1), Iftikhar 3-0-20-0, Imam 2-0-9-0, Babar 1-0-5-0.

Published in Dawn, March 8th, 2022