In the Test match played in Karachi, Pakistan captain Babar Azam scored his career-best 196 runs. Wicketkeeper Mohammad Rizwan also scored a century in the second innings. On the basis of the belligerent innings of these two, Pakistan’s team was successful in drawing the second Test against Australia. Along with this, Babar Azam and Pakistan also made many records in their names. Babar Azam also equaled KL Rahul’s record.
Babar Azam may have missed a double century in the match against Australia, but he created history. He became the highest run-scorer as captain in the fourth innings of a Test match. He left England’s Mike Atherton behind in this matter. Atherton scored an unbeaten 185 in the fourth innings against South Africa at Johannesburg in 1995.
England drew that match with the help of Atherton’s innings. Babar Azam also equaled KL Rahul’s unique record. He became the second batsman to score a century while chasing in Tests, One Day Internationals and T20 Internationals. Before Babar, only KL Rahul was able to do this in international cricket. Babar Azam was also adjudged the Player of the Match in the Karachi Test.
Pakistan became the second team in the history of Test cricket, which managed to draw the match by playing more than 1000 balls in the fourth innings. Earlier, the England team has done this feat in its name. England drew the match against South Africa at Durban in 1939 by scoring 654 for 5 in the fourth innings. Then he played 1746 balls in the fourth innings. In this case, England’s team is also at number three. England drew the match against South Africa at Johannesburg in 1995 by scoring 351 for 5 in the fourth innings. Then he played 990 balls.
Talking about the match against Pakistan and Australia, experienced off-spinner Nathan Lyon (4 for 112 runs) took three wickets in the last over, but Pakistani vice-captain Mohammad Rizwan scored an unbeaten 104 off 177 balls in the match with the tail batsmen. Draw done. Chasing Australia’s target of 506 runs, Pakistan scored 443 for 7 wickets. No. 9 batsman Nauman Ali did not score any runs after playing 18 balls but batted the last 8 overs with Rizwan to draw the match.
Babar hit 21 fours and a six in his 425-ball knock of over 10 hours. He shared 228 for the third wicket with opener Abdullah Shafiq (96) and 115 for the fifth wicket with Mohammad Rizwan.
Pakistan started the last day with 192 runs for two wickets. Babar Azam 102, while Shafiq came out to play ahead of 71 runs. Australia captain Pat Cummins (2 for 75) took a wicket each before and after lunch. He denied Shafiq a second consecutive century. After this, Fawad Alam (09) was also sent to the pavilion.
Cummins ended Shafiq’s 96-run knock that lasted nearly eight hours before lunch. Steve Smith took his catch at slips. Smith had dropped Shafiq’s catch on the personal score of 20 runs. After this Shafiq faced 305 balls. Shafiq scored the first Test century of his career in the first Test that was drawn in Rawalpindi.
Pat Cummins got Fawad caught by wicketkeeper Alex Carey after lunch, but Babar and Mohammed Rizwan Did not let the Australian bowlers achieve further success till tea. In the second session, Babar avoided getting out twice in two consecutive deliveries against spinner Mitchell Sweepson.
Babar was also lucky on a personal score of 157 when the on-field umpire turned down Lyon’s credible appeal for leg-before against him. Babar remained unbeaten as the umpires called for taking DRS. When only 13 overs were left in the match, Lyon put Pakistan in trouble. He denied the Pakistan captain a double century by getting Babar caught by Marnus Labuschagne.
Faheez Ashraf (00) also got caught at slip off Lyon’s next ball. Sajid Khan (09) gave an easy catch to Smith, but after this Rizwan and Nauman drew the match. When only 19 balls were left in the match, Usman Khawaja dropped Rizwan’s low catch at short extra cover. Rizwan completed his century on Lyon with two fours and a run.