KARACHI: As Usman Khawaja and David Warner walked in to open the innings for Australia here at the National Stadium took the onlookers into a pleasant state of disbelief, it was Pakistan’s negative tactics with the ball that ended up being the talk of the first day of the second Test on Saturday.

Although a seemingly never-ending spell of Pakistan’s defensive spin bowling after tea made the historic occasion slightly dull for the spectators, Khawaja reaching his hundred in the city where most of his relatives reside was a moment that triggered celebrations around the ground.

The Pakistan-born opener revealed few of his relatives were in the Karachi crowd, but clearly, it wasn’t only them who cheered Khawaja’s name as he punched through the air in delight.

The loud roar was a collective one from all spectators as the left-hander tucked one away towards square-leg for a single to complete his 11th ton.

“My family is actually from Karachi, this is where the Khawajas are from,” the 35-year-old Khawaja said.

“Everyone in my family is born in Karachi except me, this is my home.

“I’ve been here a lot, it’s nice to get a hundred.”

Khawaja also combined with Steve Smith — who came in at number four — for a 159-run partnership after he lost opening partner Warner and Marnus Labushagne in the first session.

That collaboration, however, took 409 balls and the Australian duo wasn’t really responsible for the low run-rate.

What slowed them down was 26 consecutive overs of spin-bowling, deliberately aimed at “drying up” Australia’s runs, as Pakistan vice-captain Mohammad Rizwan conceded in an online press conference after stumps.

The spin marathon by slow left-armer Nauman Ali and off-spinner Sajid Khan, which included two overs each from hosts’ skipper Babar Azam and veteran batter Azhar Ali, came right after tea despite the ball starting to show clear signs of reverse swing half an hour before the end of the second session.

In that period, there was an intriguing battle between bat and ball as Smith and Khawaja negotiated full-length swing bowling by Pakistan pace spearhead Shaheen Shah Afridi and Faheem.

After tea, Shaheen and Babar kept working hard on the ball for nearly 30 overs and it looked like they were preparing the cherry before they unleash Shaheen and his new-ball partner Hasan Ali.

At the end, Pakistan went on to take the new ball just 10 overs before the end of the day’s play.

“It started to reverse there in the second session and made it tough to score against the pace bowlers,” Khawaja, who is playing the 47th Test of his career, remarked.

“In the last session, they bowled pretty leg side and did some negative plans to see if we’d play some shots.”

Rizwan, on the other hand, said the pitch was one that favoured the batters and it was Pakistan’s plan to put Australia — who, according to him, had an advantage after winning the toss — under pressure through defensive bowling.

“We all know Khawaja and Warner are great batters and Australia are a word-class team,” said the wicket-keeper/batter.

“They know how to play Test cricket and come with a plan and that’s why we knew it was important to dry up runs for them.

“It’s the beauty of Test cricket.”

Rizwan believed Pakistan pacers did enough to challenge Khawaja and Smith but the pitch didn’t help them get wickets, which eventually forced Pakistan to go defensive.

“Our pacers tried really hard and they couldn’t get much out of this pitch and that is why we chose to stop the run flow rather than going for wickets,” he said.

Pakistan were helped by some luck and more importantly an extraordinary catch by Faheem at second slip with only seven balls to go before stumps to dismiss Smith, who played a loose shot outside off-stump off Hasan.

The former Australian captain departed after scoring 72 off 214. Australia could have lost another wicket had Imam-ul-Haq grabbed a chance at short-leg off Shaheen to dismiss night watchman Nathan Lyon on the last ball of the day.

Earlier, Pakistan broke Khawaja and Warner’s 82-run opening partnership as Australia got off to a quick start when Faheem made the latter play an out-swinger from around the wicket, only for Rizwan to take a routine catch.

Marnus Labushagne, who, according to a poster in the stands, “Says ‘No Run’ all day to score a hundred”, failed to bother the scorers.

Ironically, he was run-out early in the first session, trying to steal a quick single off Nauman, but Sajid picked it up at mid-off and threw it flat to dislodge the stumps at the non-striker’s end.

Scoreboard

AUSTRALIA (1st Innings):

D. Warner c Rizwan b Faheem 36

U. Khawaja not out 127

M. Labuschagne run out 0

S. Smith c Faheem b Hasan 72

N. Lyon not out 0

EXTRAS (B-5, LB-4, NB-3, W-4) 16

TOTAL (for three wkts; 90 overs) 251

FALL OF WICKETS: 1-82 (Warner), 2-91 (Labuschagne), 3-250 (Smith).

STILL TO BAT: T. Head, C. Green, A. Carey, M. Starc, P. Cummins, M. Swepson.

BOWLING (to-date): Shaheen 17-6-39-0 (1nb); Hasan 12-4-31-1 (1nb); Faheem 13-3-32-1, Sajid 19-0-71-0 (3w), Nauman 25-5-56-0 (1w); Babar 2-0-3-0, Azhar 2-0-10-0 (1nb).

PAKISTAN: Imam-ul-Haq, Abdullah Shafique, Azhar Ali, Babar Azam, Fawad Alam, Mohammad Rizwan, Faheem Ashraf, Hasan Ali, Nauaman Ali, Shaheen Shah Afridi, Sajid Khan.

Published in Dawn, March 13th, 2022