Australia face tough task after Sohail’s ton
Haris sohail is not among those left-handers that make you drool. the sialkot-born player lacks the left-hander’s grace, but the beauty of his game lies in his determination to fight for every run as though it’s his last chance to bat for his country.
it is that determination that helped him put his country in a commanding position on the second day of the first test against australia at the dubai international cricket stadium.
sohail (110, 240 balls, 8 fours, 2 sixes) notched up his maiden test hundred as he helped pakistan post a highly impressive total of 482 all out in their first innings.
then usman khawaja (17 not out, 40 balls, 1 four) and debutant aaron finch (13 not out, 38 balls) survived a few scares against the classy yasir shah as australia finished the second day on 30/0. after suffering for 164.2 overs under the scorching sun, their dressing room must have heaved a sigh of relief when their openers walked back unscatched.
but can these inexperienced australians, with three debutants in their batting line-up, rise to the challenge of facing the pakistani spinners in these weather conditions on the third day? that’s the answer everyone wanted when marnus labuschagne, one of the three debutants in tim paine’s team, came to the press conference in the evening.
“the wicket is still pretty good. it has deteriorated a little bit but i think it will hold together pretty well. so if we can put up really good batting performance that will put us in a good position for the third innings,” the south africa-born player told reporters at the press conference.
the australians need look no further than the pakistan dressing room for inspiration.
sohail and the hugely underrated asad shafiq (80, 165 balls, 9 fours, 1 six) showed how to bat on a wicket like this against a disciplined attack.
this left-hand-right-hand combination kept paine’s bowlers on their toes, even though only 13 runs came in the first hour after the tireless peter siddle bowled night-watchman mohammad abbas.
and their skills to put the bad ball away in their 150-run fifth wicket partnership frustrated mitchell marsh and nathan lyon, australia’s best bowlers. shafiq was a bit more adventurous, but his use of the feet to hit lyon for a straight six was just classical batting. nobody in the history of the game has hit more centuries than shafiq from the number six position in a batting order (the great garry sobers is second on that list with eight hundreds). it could have been the 10th test century from the number six position for shafiq if he had not lost concentration against the parttime spinner labuschagne.
that wicket against the run of play eventually helped australia stop pakistan from posting a 550-plus total. siddle, whose previous test appearance came in 2016, marked his return to the team with three wickets. starc (1/90) and lyon (2/114), on the other hand, would try to forget the ordeal.