LAHORE, Sept 22: All the good work done by Australia ‘A’ in the second four-day game against Pakistan ‘A’ went in vain as rain came down hard to force a draw at the Gaddafi Stadium on Saturday.
The visitors, who maintained their supremacy on all the four days of the game, had set a target of 401 for Pakistan ‘A’ to win after declaring their second innings at 361-3 at 10.55am after resuming at the overnight score of 288-2.
Pakistan had progressed to 45 for no loss by the lunch interval with Khurram Manzoor (17) and Yasir Hameed (6) at the crease after opener Khalid Latif had retired hurt off the bowling of Doug Bollinger.
The two teams had to return to the pavilion soon after the lunch break as bad light stopped play followed by heavy rain.
Later, the two captains Adam Voges and Faisal Iqbal took a matual decision to call off the game since no result was expected in the match at that stage. Eventually, the two umpires Shakeel Khan and Afzaal Ahmed formally called off the match at 2.30pm.
Earlier, David Hussey, who resumed at 69, completed his century with the help of 13 fours and was declared as Man-of-the-Series.
He received a cheque of US$1000 from the Australian High Commissioner Zorica Maccarthy who was the chief guest on the occasion.
Pakistan’s chief selector Salahuddin Ahmed awarded the trophy to the Australian skipper.
Voges, in a post match address, said it was a good series and his team did well to make an excellent comeback in the four-day matches after losing the one-day series.
He praised the arrangements made by the PCB for the series.
Pakistan ‘A’ captain Faisal Iqbal said the top order of his team could not click in the four-day matches and that made the real difference.
Scoreboard.
AUSTRALIA ‘A’ (1st Innings) 293
PAKISTAN ‘A’ (1st Innings) 254
AUSTRALIA ‘A’ (2nd Innings, overnight
288-2);
C.J.L Rogers lbw b Khalil 54
Phil Jaques c Naveed b Tahir 136
David Hussey b Mansoor 112
Adam Voges not out 34
Cullen White not out 4
EXTRAS (B-8, LB-5, W-1, NB-7) 21
TOTAL (for three decl, 77 overs) 361
FALL OF WKTS: 1-101, 2-269, 3-354.
BOWLING: Mohammad Sami 10-0-64-0; Anwar Ali 15-2-67-0 (1nb); Mohammad Khalil 17-0-83-1 (3nb, 1w); Tahir Khan 22-2-66-1 (1nb); Mansoor Amjad 13-0-68-1 (2nb).
PAKISTAN ‘A’ (2nd Innings)
Khalid Latif retired hurt 21
Khurram Manzoor not out 17
Yasir Hameed not out 6
EXTRAS (NB-1) 1
TOTAL (for no wkt, 11 overs) 45
BOWLING: Bollinger 5-0-27-0 (1nb); Gillespie 5-1-12-0; Hopes 1-0-6-0.
Result: Match drawn
UMPIRES: Shakeel Khan and Afzaal Ahmed
MATCH REFEREE: Ishtiaq Ahmed