Azhar Ali 139 not out after batting through another day curtailed by rain

Pakistan finish the day at 310/6 after good contributions by Asad Shafiq (50) and Mohammad Amir (28*).

By Abdullah Ansari (27th December, 2016)

Toss: Pakistan won the toss, Misbah-ul-Haq opted to bat first.

Teams

Australia: MT Renshaw, DA Warner, UT Khawaja, SPD Smith (c), PSP Handscomb, NJ Maddinson, MS Wade (wk), MA Starc, JR Hazlewood, NM Lyon, JM Bird.

Pakistan: Sami Aslam, Azhar Ali, Babar Azam, Younis Khan, Misbah-ul-Haq (c), Asad Shafiq, Sarfraz Ahmed (wk), Mohammad Amir, Sohail Khan, Yasir Shah, Wahab Riaz.

Day 2 of the MCG Test started half an hour earlier due to the rain on the previous day. Pakistan got off to a positive start, looking to work the ball around as the bowlers searched for some swing. With none on offer, the bowlers resorted to bowling tight lines to try and induce a mistake. Azhar kept the score moving along slowly but consistently while Shafiq found runs harder to come by. The batsmen negotiated the opening bowlers' spells safely as Azhar neared his hundred. Asad survived an appeal for caught behind, with the review also failing as it hit his thigh pad. Azhar in the meantime was almost run out at the non-striker's end via a straight drive with the big screen mistakenly signalling 'OUT' at first. There was soon a short delay due to rain - Azhar got to his hundred soon thereafter. Australia bowled the part-timers before the 2nd new ball to keep the new bowlers fresh but with the outfield getting wet, decided not to take it before the interval. The batsmen took full advantage of this to take the attack to the bowlers and improve the run-rate. With 10 minutes to go, there was some controvesy as umpire Ian Gould took an early Lunch break despite there being no obvious reason to do so.

The early Lunch transformed into a few hours' long break with no play possible for three hours as the rain arrived. Play finally got underway again after the scheduled Tea break, thus a whole session was skipped in between. The 2nd new ball was taken straight away and there was healthy movement on offer for Hazlewood as Pakistan went into survival mode for the first few overs. The pressure seemed to get to them as Azhar was almost run out after taking a quick single and he also survived a chance of caught behind with the ball just falling short of Wade. There were two big LBW appeals against Shafiq as he played across the line but both were going down the leg-side. He brought up his fifty after that but fell to Bird who bowled one that seamed away sharply, taking a healthy edge through to slip. Sarfraz was nervy with the ball still moving around while Azhar motored along. The wicket-keeper fell to Hazlewood as he prodded at one outside off, giving a simply catch to slip. Amir came out firing on all cylinders, throwing his bat at anything outside off - when he edged, he flashed hard and it went over or between the slips. He took Starc for three fours in an over as Australia's frustration increased. With the partnership quickly nearing fifty at almost run-a-ball, the rain arrived once again and that was Stumps on Day 2, with Pakistan on 310/6.

Summary: A good day for Pakistan, albeit one where just around 50 overs were bowled. Azhar Ali was fantastic throughout, showing immense discipline and forcing the bowlers to bowl to his strengths while Asad Shafiq showed good resolve to see out the tougher overs during the earlier part of the day. The good effort by the two was capped off by Amir taking the attack to the Australian pacers as Pakistan finished on a high. Chances of a result may be somewhat limited due to almost 80 overs being lost on the first 2 days but Pakistan will have some hope after putting up a more than competent batting display first up, led by Azhar Ali.

Fall of wickets:

5-240 (Asad Shafiq, 87.6 ov)
6-268 (Sarfraz Ahmed, 94.5 ov)

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14:30 GMT, 27 April 2024

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Azhar Ali 139 not out after batting through another day curtailed by rain

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