Pakistan collapsed like a house of cards as Australia took an iron grip on the third and decisive cricket Test for the Benaud-Qadir Trophy at the Gaddafi Stadium in Lahore.
Replying to Australia’s 391 and resuming the third day at 90 for one, Pakistan were cruising nicely at 248 for three before they plummeted to 268 after losing their last seven wickets for 20 runs in 63 balls. Pakistan had gone into tea break at 227 for three with Australia in a bother.
Australia captain Pat Cummins led from the front and took five wickets for 56 runs, his seventh five-fer in 41st Test, while his new-ball partner Mitchell Starc claimed four wickets for 33 runs as the two speedsters caused havoc almost 26 overs after the second new ball was in operation.
When play ended on Wednesday, Australia were 11 for no loss.
Australia now lead Pakistan by 134 runs and sense their first win at the Gaddafi Stadium since Richie Benaud’s side defeated Imtiaz Ahmed’s team by seven wickets in November 1959. Since that result, three Tests at the Gaddafi Stadium between the two sides have ended in draws while Pakistan’s only victory was in 1982 when Javed Miandad-led Pakistan beat Kim Hughes-captained Australia.
Cummins and Starc not only fired thunderbolts with the second semi-old ball but maintained tremendous pinpoint accuracy as four of the last seven batters were clean bowled, Babar Azam and Nauman Ali were trapped in front of the wickets and Hasan Ali was caught by Steve Smith in the first slip.
In fact, the beginning of the end of Pakistan’s innings had started at the total of 214 when Cummins brought off a stunning and athletic caught and bowled catch of Azhar Ali to end a 44-run third wicket partnership between him and Babar.
That brought Fawad Alam on to the crease who lasted 56 balls for his 13 before Starc found the gap between his bat and pad to rattle the furniture behind the left-hander.
Mohammad Rizwan, whose unbeaten century in Karachi contributed in Pakistan saving the Test, lasted 14 balls before Starc beat the wicketkeeper-batter with pace and swing to strike the off-stump.
Cummins then got into action when he forced Sajid Khan to drag the ball onto his leg-stump stumps, then pinned Nauman in front of the wickets before having Hasan caught in the slips to complete a well-deserved five-fer.
Last-man Naseem Shah was no match to Starc’s quality as Pakistan nosedive from 248 for three to 268 all out to leave a decent Pakistan Day crowd shell-shocked and stunned.
The middle and lower-order’s batting display wasted and undone an excellent work by Abdullah Shafique, Azhar and Babar, who struck impressive half-centuries to place Pakistan in a position from where they could have dictated terms.
Abdullah, who started the day at 45, was dismissed after scoring a well-constructed 81. He faced 228 balls and struck 11 fours. His previous scores in the series are 44, 136 not out, 13 and 96 as he has only looked better and more impressive as the series has progressed.
Together with Azhar, Abdullah added 150 runs for the second wicket before television replays confirmed he had edged Nathan Lyon’s delivery into the safe hands of Alex Carey.
Azhar, who began this morning, 30, remained unaffected with the departure of Abdullah as he continued to play his signature and trademark shots in the company of Babar. It required a marvelous effort from Cummins to dismiss Azhar but not before the 94-Test veteran had scored 78 off 208 balls with seven fours and a six.
When Azhar reached 74, he became Pakistan’s fifth batter to complete 7,000 Test runs. The other four are Younis Khan (10,099 runs in 118 Tests), Javed Miandad (8,832 runs in 124 Tests), Inzamam-ul-Haq (8,829 runs in 119 Tests) and Mohammad Yousuf (7,530 in 90 Tests).
Babar, after watching helplessly from the non-strikers end to see his batters come and go, Babar became the ninth batter to be dismissed when he was trapped in front of the wickets by Starc. Television replays showed the ball would have just kissed the leg-stump. Babar struck six fours and a six in his 131-ball 67.
After 232 runs were scored for the loss of five wickets on day one and 249 runs were scored on the second day for the loss of six wickets, nine wickets fell on the third day and 189 runs were scored.
Without predicting in this glorious game of uncertainties, Pakistan seem to be once again behind Australia and will require a herculion effort to come out of a self-created crisis.
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