Pakistan-Australia have an emotional day in Lahore

Fourty Tests and 13 years after Gaddafi Stadium last staged a Test, the purist and traditional format of the game returned to the Pakistan cricket headquarters on Monday and honours were evenly shared on day one of the third and final Test between Pakistan and Australia for the Benaud-Qadir Trophy.

Making the right call on the spin of coin, Australia had scored 232 runs and Pakistan had picked up five top-order wickets as competitive and quality contest between the bat and ball was on display throughout the 88 overs that were bowled today, including five with the second new ball.

Cameron Green on 20 and Alex Carey on eight will resume Australia’s first innings with an aim to make optimum use of a good toss to win. In contrast, Pakistan bowlers will try to seize the initiative by removing the lower-order to give them a chance to bat well in the first innings, take a decent lead and avoid chasing a mammoth fourth innings target.

It was a sensational start to the Test when Shaheen Shah Afridi picked up the wickets of David Warner (seven) and Marnus Labuschagne (zero) in a space of three balls to reduce Austrralia to eight for two, before Usman Khawaja and Steve Smith repaired the damage by stitching up a 138-run third wicket partnership.

The stand was broken when Naseem Shah trapped Smith in front of the wicket to end the former Australia captain’s defiant 169-ball 59 that included six fours.

Khawaja and Travis Head added 41 runs for the fourth wicket before Babar Azam brought off a stunning catch off Sajid Khan to deny the Australia left-handed opener of another century. Khawaja tried to play Sajid against the spin and Babar held a quick and low catch in the lone slip to end the 35-year-old’s fighting knock of 91.

Khawaja faced 219 balls and hit nine fours and a six.

Shortly after, Naseem, replacing Faheem Ashraf in the only change from the Karachi Test, produced a peach of a delivery to find the outside edge of Head’s bat for Mohammad Rizwan to do the rest. Head scored 26 off 70 balls with four fours.

While Shaheen finished the day with figures of 15-3-39-2, Naseem was equally impressive with figures of 19-9-36-2. Sajid Khan picked up one wicket for 65 runs from 25 overs.

Both Smith and Head were fortunate when the return catches they offered went abegging. Smith got a let off on 19 when Nauman failed to held on to a sharp catch, while Head was dropped by Sajid when seven.

Monday was the first day of return of Test cricket to the Gaddafi Stadium since March 2009 when the Sri Lanka cricket team was attacked by the terrorists. After that unfortunate incident, Pakistan played 33 Tests offshore until November 2019 when Sri Lanka played in Rawalpindi in December 2019. However, it took seven more Tests for Lahore to stage their 41^st Test overall since 1959 and first in 13 years.

One of the most inspirational stories from that forgettable, sad and unfortunate day when international cricket was halted in Pakistan was Ahsan Raza. It is appropriate that Ahsan is umpiring in the Lahore Test with Aleem Dar. While it is Ahsan’s fifth match, it is Aleem’s 139^th appearance.