Usman Khawaja’s marathon 160 and Alex Carey’s career-best 93 helped Australia scored 505 for eight against Pakistan on the second day of the second Test on Sunday.
It was a day of painstaking accumulation at the National Stadium, where Pakistan’s bowlers kept the run rate under control but fell only five wickets in three sessions for all their hard work under the scorching sun.
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Mitchell Starc saw 95 balls for his unbeaten 28 as Australia captain Pat Cummins remained unbeaten.
Carey said, “Tomorrow we will see what the captain does, but it is great to have 500 runs on the board. Hopefully tomorrow and the fourth day the pitch will be bad and we can make 20 chances. So more runs now we have got it,” Carey said. Well, if we have to bat again, we will be in a better position.”
Earlier, after Australia resumed at 251/3, Shaheen Afridi subjected Nathan Lyon to a bouncer barrage, but the nightwatchman did not budge and went on the attack with a pull shot.
Lyon hit five fours in an entertaining knock of 38 runs before he rearranged his stumps by an express delivery from Faheem Ashraf, ending a 54-run stand with Khawaja.
Khawaja had stopped the reverse sweep on Saturday but Pakistan were sure they had caught him at slip when the opener attempted a shot against Nauman Ali.
However, replays denied any ball-bat contact and Pakistan lost a review.
Khawaja duly scored 150 but could not better his highest score of 174 as Sajid Khan struck a double blow.
Off-spinner Travis Head was dismissed lbw for 23 and Khawaja’s bat went ahead and fell on the off-stump.
Islamabad-born Khawaja’s third century in four Tests included 15 fours and a six.
Cameron Green, who was still not born when Australia toured Pakistan in 1998, scored 28 before Nauman confused him with a sharp-turning ball that pitched outside the leg-stump and struck off. But it took
Carey was swept well and Starc batted perfectly to frustrate Pakistan and take Australia past the 500 mark.
Pakistan captain Babar Azam brought himself to bowl, partly to relieve his overworked spinners, and struck in his first over.
In his haste to reach 100 points before the end of the game, Carey went for a slog sweep but lost his stumps to part-time spinner Babar who kept short.
His brilliant innings included seven fours and two sixes.
Carey left the field to a standing ovation from his teammates, adding 98 runs for the eighth wicket with Starc.
“Our plan was to bowl stump-to-stump and not leak too many runs,” Pakistan all-rounder Faheem told reporters.
“The pitch was slow. So even when we were getting reverse swing, their batsmen had enough time to talk.”
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