Captain Babar, ton-up Rizwan win hearts in thrilling draw

Australia’s players clap as Pakistan’s captain Babar Azam walks back to the pavillon after his dismissal during the fifth and final day of the second Test at the National Cricket Stadium in Karachi yesterday. (AFP)

• Pakistan skipper scores 196 as wicketkeeper remains unbeaten on 104 on the last day of second Test in Karachi Pakistan skipper Babar Azam smashed 196 and Mohamed Rizwan 104 not out to deny Australia victory yesterday and force a dramatic draw in the second Test in Karachi. The Australians had sniffed victory on their first tour of the country in nearly a quarter of a century, but Azam and Rizwan put in record-breaking performances to ensure the series will go to a meaningful third and final Test starting Monday after the first also ended in a draw last week. The Pakistan pair looked to be safely steering the home team to a draw, but spinner Nathan Lyon turned the match on its head by dismissing Azam and then Faheem Ashraf with successive deliveries. Set a daunting 506-run target, Pakistan finished on 443-7 after being bundled out for 148 in their first innings. Australia made 556-9 declared in their first innings and, after deciding not to enforce the follow-on, declared their second at 97-2. Lyon came on to bowl the third of the 15 remaining overs of the match, and with his fourth delivery had Azam glove a catch to Marnus Labuschagne at forward short-leg. Next ball Lyon had Ashraf caught at slip to raise hopes of an Australian win. The late-hour drama also saw Usman Khawaja drop Rizwan on 91 off luckless spinner Mitchell Swepson with 18 balls left in the match. The pugnacious Rizwan, in the company of tailender Nauman Ali (nought), batted out 46 balls during their 29-run stand for the eighth wicket to keep the three-match series tied at 0-0. Azam’s marathon knock of 10 hours and seven minutes is the second-longest in the fourth innings of a Test, behind Michael Atherton’s vigil of 185 not out that lasted 643 minutes and helped England secure a draw against South Africa in the 1995 Johannesburg Test. “This innings means a lot to me and to my team,” said Azam of what is his best-ever Test score. “The plan was always to try and survive, and even towards the end there were no serious discussions about chasing it.”   The knock is the best-ever fourth-innings score by a captain, surpassing Atherton’s South Africa knock. It now stands as the highest fourth-innings total by a Pakistani, erasing the 171 not out Younis Khan made against Sri Lanka in Pallekele in 2015. Azam added an invaluable 228 runs for the third wicket with opener Abdullah Shafique (96) and another 115 for the fifth with Rizwan, keeping Australia’s spin-cum-pace attack at bay for most of the day.   With Pakistan falling 63 short of the 506-run target, the record for the highest chase in all Test cricket remains with the West Indies, who scored 418 against Australia at Antigua in 2003. SCOREBOARD Australia 1st innings 556-9 dec Pakistan 1st innings 148   Australia 2nd innings 97-2 dec Pakistan 2nd innings (overnight 192-2) A Shafique c Smith b Cummins           96 Imam-ul-Haq lbw b Lyon                            1 Azhar Ali lbw b Green                                 6 Babar Azam c Labuschagne b Lyon 196 Fawad Alam c Carey b Cummins           9 Mohamed Rizwan not out                   104 Faheem Ashraf c Smith b Lyon              0 Sajid Khan c Smith b Lyon                        9 Nauman Ali not out                                    0 Extras: (b8, lb2, nb5, w7)                         22 Total (for 7 wkts; 171.4 overs)           443 Fall of wickets: 1-2 (Haq), 2-21 (Azhar), 3-249 (Shafique), 4-277 (Alam), 5-392 (Azam), 6-392 (Ashraf), 7-414 (Sajid) Bowling: Starc 21-6-58-0 (nb1, w1), Cummins 26-6-75-2 (nb1), Swepson 53.4-8-156-0 (w4), Lyon 55-20-112-4, Green 15-4-32-1 (nb3, w2), Labuschagne 1-1-0-0 Result: Match drawnPakistan’s Babar Azam (left) and Mohamed Rizwan run between the wickets during the fifth and final day of the second Test against Australia at the National Cricket Stadium in Karachi yesterday. (AFP)