(UTV |AUSTRALIA) – If Australia were looking for the famed Pakistan hospitality to spill over to the ground to mark their return to this country after 24 years.
If Australia were looking for the famed Pakistan hospitality to spill over to the ground to mark their return to this country after 24 years, they were in for a rather rude shock. Babar Azam won the toss and his openers Imam-ul-Haq and Abdullah Shafique added 105 in the extended first session of the series. The visitors were left to chase leather for most of the session before a moment of indiscretion from Shafique moments before the session break ensured Nathan Lyon and Australia didn’t walk back to the dressing room with a blob on the wickets column.
The start to the historic series was marked by the teams taking contrasting approaches to setting up their sides. Babar named a three-prong spin attack while Australia resorted to playing their tried and tested 4-1 combination with Lyon the only frontline spinner. Australia’s offie was introduced into the attack as early as the eight over, even before Pat Cummins himself had bowled.
Australia’s seamers before Lyon, despite not being threatening, managed to keep a leash on the scoring so much so that Shafique and Imam managed only 12 runs together after half an hour of play. Cummins then managed to find Shafique’s outside edge but the ball dropped well before David Warner at slip. The hard Kookaburra ball, though, offered turn and bounce for Lyon and the wily spinner used it to send some jitters in the opposition camp. After being lofted over his head for four by Shafique, he had the right hander nearly caught at backward short leg and then troubled him further with a ball that held it’s line and beat the batsman on the outside edge.
This early assistance for Lyon forced Cummins into bowling part-timer Travis Head. It was a seminal breaking of the shackles moment for Imam. Having scored only 7 off his first 41 deliveries, Imam quickly upped his ante scoring a flurry of boundaries. As the ball softened, the left-hander was happy to use his feet against Lyon, following a couple of fours with a hit over the long-off fence. Imam outscored his fast-starting partner to reach his half-century off only 81 balls.
The partnership swelled past 100 and the visitors were braced for a fruitless session before Shafique fell on the cusp of the lunch break, failing to get to the pitch of a Lyon delivery while looking for another lofted shot.
Brief scores: Pakistan 105/1 (Imam-ul-Haq 57*; Abdullah Shafique 44; Nathan Lyon 1-36) vs Australia