Babar hundred stalls Australia’s victory

Captain Babar Azam’s first test hundred in two years and Abdullah Shafique’s 71 led Pakistan’s resistance after Australia set up a huge target of 506 on day four Tuesday of the second test.

Babar was unbeaten on 102 off 198 balls and opening batter Shafique followed his maiden test hundred in the drawn first test with an undefeated 71 off 226 balls to take Pakistan to 192-2 at stumps.

Pakistan still needs an improbable 314 runs to achieve a world record run chase on the last day or survive the remaining 90 overs to deny Australia taking a 1-0 lead in the three-match series.

Babar and Shafique defied Australia’s reverse swing and Nathan Lyon’s spin on a wearing pitch for well over four hours and raised a 171-run stand in almost two sessions.

Babar, who made his last test century in February 2020 against Bangladesh, raised his sixth test hundred when he top-edged a sweep for two runs late in the last session. It took him just over four hours off 180 balls with 12 fours.

“We have good momentum, but there are already rough patches on the wicket and it will be a big challenge for us tomorrow,” Shafique said.

Babar and Shafique joined in the second over after lunch when Azhar Ali’s labors for more than an hour to score 6 were undone by an lbw from Cameron Green. Video showed a spike coming off the gloves before it hit Azhar on the body, but he chose not to review.

Pakistan could have been 38-3 but Steve Smith spilled a straightforward catch in the slips when Shafique was on 20. It was Smith’s third dropped catch in the test. Shafique also got a life on 33 when he was well short of his crease but Green missed the stumps at the non-striker’s end.

Brief Scores: Australia 556/9 decl. (Usman Khawaja 160, Alex Carey 93; Faheem Ashraf 2-55, Sajid Khan 2-167) & 97/2 decl (Marnus Labuschagne 44, Usman Khawaja 44*)lead Pakistan 148(Babar Azam 36; Mitchell Starc 3-29, Mitchell Swepson 2-32) & 104/2 (Babar Azam 102*, Abdullah Shafi que 71*) by 314 runs.