Pak debutant Bilal Asif leaves Aussies in a spin
Asif had to wait till he was 26 to make his first-class debut, and a false alarm set off over the off-spinner’s action in only his second ODI, threatened to derail his Pakistan career early.
His ODI run halted at three games in 2015, his Test debut against Australia came at 33, when most think of retirement.
Asif though left Australia reeling with a sensational six for 36 on Tuesday, handing Pakistan firm grip on the third day of the first Test in Dubai. Pakistan, having piled up 482, dismissed Australia for 202, and were 45/3 at stumps, an overall lead of 325.
Australia were 142/0 with Usman Khawaja (85) and debutant Aaron Finch (62) set when the latter was caught off Mohammad Abbas. Asif took over as all 10 wickets fell in 32 overs.
Asif’s strengths are his ability to extract turn and bounce, skills honed under former spin great, Mushtaq Ahmed. Still he got a look in only because of the chucking issues of Saeed Ajmal and Mohammad Hafeez.
Hafeez hit a century, but
bowled little as it turned out to be Asif’s show with the ball.
Shaun Marsh nicked a tossed-up delivery, Khawaja miscued a sweep and debutants Travis Head and Marnus Labuschagne fell for nought.
Aussie skipper Tim Paine was victim No 5 and Asif removed counterpart Nathan Lyon to end the innings.
Hailing from a village near Sialkot, Asif took a long time to make his first-class debut. And
Bowling: M Abbas 19-9-29-4, W Riaz 11-2-39-0, Y Shah 28-6-80-0, M Hafeez 3-1-2-0, B Asif 21.3-736-6, A Ali 1-0-3-0
DUBAI:Bilal
in his second ODI, against Zimbabwe in Harare in 2015, he took 5/25 and scored 38 as opener. Reported for chucking, biomechanical tests at the ICC-accredited centre in Chennai established his elbow flex was legal.
The electrician’s moved to Kuwait for a while to help his father, but returned to Pakistan to chase his cricket dream. On Tuesday, the man said to have a fine voice was on song, vindicating the team’s faith in him.