CANBERRA: Shan Masood led by example on his first outing as Pakistan’s red-ball captain, stylishly cruising to an unbeaten century on the opening day of the tour match against the Australian Prime Minister’s XI at Manuka Oval on Wednesday.

The left-hander played a range of attacking strokes – 13 fours and a six – on his way to 156 off 235 balls.

Shan brought up his century with a sweep off Todd Murphy’s off-spin in the final session before applying full throttle, with Sarfaraz Ahmed (41) and Babar Azam (40) helping Pakistan post 324-6 by stumps.

Pacer Jordan Buckingham was the pick of the PM’s XI bowlers, taking three wickets in the 17 overs that he bowled.

Pakistan could have had a bigger score on the board had it not been for cheap wickets on what was a flat pitch, with the hot weather offering little respite for bowlers.

Babar tickled Buckingham down the leg side and into the gloves of wicket-keeper Jimmy Peirson after a 92-run stand with Shan, becoming the third wicket to fall for Pakistan after early departures for openers Abdullah Shafique (38) and Imam-ul-Haq (9).

Shan, who was appointed as the Pakistan skipper in the wake of the side’s World Cup exit last month, looked extremely gritty throughout his knock and avoided celebrations at the 100 and 150 marks.

“The innings that our captain played was brilliant,” Abdullah said of Shan after the match. “He was very calm and composed innings.

“When you are starting a major tour like this, your start matters a lot. As a batting unit, we have made the right impact.”

Earlier, Shan had won the toss to send the Australia Test hopefuls into the field.

Pakistan named the same top six that played in their most recent Test, against Sri Lanka in July, but have unleashed uncapped bowling duo Aamer Jamal and Khurram Shahzad.

Star quick Shaheen Shah Afridi has been rested.

The tour match is a build-up to Pakistan three-match Test series against Australia which starts with the first game in Perth from December 14.

Abdullah said the practice game would give Pakistan an advantage ahead of the series.

“Preparations matter a lot for any tour,” he noted. “Playing in these conditons in the warm-up game is a big advantage for us.

It’s good that we are getting a feel of the conditions that we would encounter against Australia.“

Scoreboard

PAKISTAN (1st Innings):

Abdullah Shafique c Bancroft b Steketee 38

Imam-ul-Haq c Peirson b Buckingham 9

Shan Masood not out 156

Babar Azam c Peirson b Buckingham 40

Saud Shakeel b Murphy 13

Sarfraz Ahmed c Peirson b Buckingham 41

Faheem Ashraf c Bancroft b McAndrew 17

EXTRAS (LB-7, NB-2, W-1) 10

TOTAL (for six wickets, 89.4 overs) 324

STILL TO BAT: Aamer Jamal, Khurram Shahzad, Mir Hamza, Abrar Ahmed

FALL OF WICKETS: 1-18 (Imam), 2-76 (Abdullah), 3-168 (Babar), 4-214 (Saud), 5-287 (Sarfraz), 6-324 (Faheem)

BOWLING: Steketee 16-1-43-1, McAndrew 18.4-1-55-1, Buckingham 17-4-63-3 (1nb), Murphy 22-2-90-1, Webster 12-2-45-0, McSweeney 4-0-21-0

PRIME MINISTER’S XI TEAM: Marcus Harris, Cameron Bancroft, Matt Renshaw, Cameron Green, Nathan McSweeney, Beau Webster, Jimmy Peirson, Nathan McAndrew, Todd Murphy, Mark Steketee, Jordan Buckingham

Published in Dawn, December 7th, 2023