LAHORE: Despite a decent start on Day 3, Pakistan’s batting lineup fell like a house of cards against the Australian bowling as the host team was bowled out for 268 in reply to Australia’s 391 in the first innings.
The day started with a brilliant partnership between Azhar Ali and Abdullah Shafique. Both batters added 150 runs before Abdullah was dismissed for 81 of 228 deliveries. Azhar departed for 78 of 208 balls. Babar Azam was the only batter who showed resilience against the Aussie bowling with 67 runs.
The rest of the batting line-up failed miserably, as Australian fast bowling shined on Day 3. Mitchell Starc took 4 wickets for 33 runs while captain Pat Cummins bowled out 5 batters and conceded 56 runs. Australia ended the day’s play with 11/0 and a 134 runs lead.
Meanwhile, former captain Azhar Ali reached the milestone of scoring 7,000 Test runs. Only five Pakistani batters have achieved the record including Javed Miandad, Inzamam-ul-Haq, Mohammad Yousuf and Younis Khan.