Karachi: Australia captain Pat Cummins got the major breakthrough and denied Abdullah Shafique a century in successive Tests as Pakistan moved to 254-3 at lunch Wednesday on the final day of the second cricket Test.
Pakistan still needed to bat through a minimum 62 overs to salvage a draw or chase down a further 252 runs after being set an improbable target of 506 for victory.
Cummins ended Shafique’s marathon 96-run, almost 8-hour knock when Steve Smith held onto a healthy edge at first slip in the penultimate over before lunch.
Babar Azam continued to prosper and was unbeaten on 133 off 283 balls after resuming Day 5 on 102. Babar, who has hit 15 boundaries, hit three boundaries in the morning session against leg-spinner Mitchell Swepson.
Shafique showed a lot of patience and faced 305 balls after getting dropped on 20 on Day 4 when Smith floored a sitter in the slips.
Shafique, who scored his maiden test century in the drawn first test at Rawalpindi last week, again showed grit by combining in a 228-run stand with skipper Babar before he drove at a full pitched delivery from Cummins in a rare lapse of concentration to give Australia a sniff of victory.
Babar continued to dominate both pace and spin Wednesday and also survived a short pacey spells of Mitchell Starc and Cummins, who couldn’t get enough swing to trouble the batters with the second new ball after Pakistan resumed on 192-2.
Starc twice came close but both times the left-armer’s faster deliveries missed the outside edge of Babar’s bat in one over.
Babar welcomed rookie leg-spinner Mitchell Swepson in the seventh over of the day with two successive boundaries and also swept him to fine leg for another four. Shafique also used his feet well against the leg-spinner for a cover driven boundary before Cummins gave Australia a much awaited breakthrough.