SHAHEEN, NASEEM FIERY SPELLS GIVE HOSTS UPPER HAND ON DAY 2

Shaheen Afridi and Naseem Shah’s four-wicket hauls helped Pakistan in bundling out Australia at 391 and getting an upper hand on Day 2 of the ongoing third Test here in Lahore, on Tuesday.

At Stumps, Pakistan’s score read at 90/1 with hosts currently trailing by 301 runs. Batters Abdullah Shafique and Azhar Ali are standing unbeaten at the crease. Resuming Day 2 at 232/5, Australia batters Cameron Green and Alex Carey continued with their decent knocks and scored their respective half-centuries. Their duo finally broke when Nauman Ali claimed Carey’s wicket with 341 runs on the board.

Green then fell prey to Naseem’s fiery pace and got bowled after scoring 79 runs. Mitchell Starc and skipper Pat Cummins came to the crease and tried to anchor the innings but could not do much as the former got caught by Nauman Ali on Shaheen Afridi’s delivery, with the team’s total at 369/8.

Naseem then dismissed Nathan Lyon for just 4 runs. Later, Mitchell Swepson joined hands with Cummins but got bowled by Shaheen, which ended the visitors’ batting run at 391.

Coming to bat, Abdullah Shafique and Imam-ul-Haq gave a steady start to Pakistan. Cummins then dismissed Imam-ul-Haq with just 20 runs on the board.

Later, Azhar Ali joined hands with Abdullah and the duo ensured that there was no more damage in Pakistan’s batting line-up. Pakistan ended Day 2 at 90/1.

Brief score: Australia 391 (Usman Khawaja 91, Cameron Green 79; Naseem Shah 4/58) vs Pakistan 90/1 (Abdullah Shafique 45*, Azhar Ali 30*; Pat Cummins 1/27).