PAK vs AUS | Babar Azam century sets Pakistan up for an exciting chase on final day

Babar Azam scored his sixth century in Test cricket to keep Pakistan in the chase at the end of Day 4 in National Stadium Karachi.

Tuesday, 15 March brought starkly different results than it did the very previous day, as Pakistan managed to score 192 runs for the loss of two wickets after batting 82 overs. A fourth innings century from the Pakistan captain was the highlight of the day, and went on to be the bedrock of this Pakistan survival act alongside Abdullah Shafique who scored 71 off 226 balls.

Iron tight defence from both batsmen stopped the flow of wickets and broke the intense rhythm from the Australian bowlers, who at a point looked like they could affect another collapse in the Pakistan batting line up.

Azam and Shafique were patient against the entire Australian attack and managed the inconsistent bounce very well. They made an adjustment and played the ball very late, which essentially was the prime reason behind the change of fortunes for Pakistan. What added to their sensational batting was that there wasn’t enough reverse swing on the day and the short balls employed by Cummins, Starc and Cameron Green got its sting taken out of it owing to the softness of the deck.

Babar’s innings was highlighted by his patience against the negative line of Mitchell Swepson, who came around the wicket and tried to bowl Babar out around his legs. He kept padding the spinner throughout the day, before starting to employ sweep shots - something that he is not very fond of.

He brought up his century very late in the day and signalled to the dugout that everyone has to remain calm because a lot of work is yet to be done in the Test match.

On the other hand, Australia still have 314 runs to defend, and if Pakistan do try to crank the heat on and choose to go for the target, they will have enough opportunities in this track that might threaten a new batter massively due to its inconsistent bounce.

With 90 overs more in the game, Australia will hope that they get some reverse swing going in the final day, because at the moment, it seems that spinners are going to find no zip off the wicket.