Babar, Shan hit tons as Pakistan take control

Majestic Babar Azam and awesome Shan Masood put Pakistan in the driving seat against sorry Bangladesh on the second day of the first Test here at Pindi Stadium on Saturday.

It was all about the sheer class of none other than the future of Pakistan cricket Babar Azam, who played marvellous cricket. His ground shots, pulls and straight drives were all sheer class and his patience to see off early overs made him different form the rest of the pack.

Babar played one of the finest knocks of his life as he punished all the Bangladeshi bowlers at will. His classic unbeaten innings of 143 consumed 192 deliveries and he smashed 19 boundaries and one six. He put on 108 runs partnership for third wicket with opener Shan Masood, who also played superbly and scored exactly 100 runs before he lost patience and simply gifted his wicket to Tajul Islam, who cleaned him up but not before he had hit 11 boundaries.

Stylish batsman Asad Shafiq was unbeaten at the crease with Babar Azam after scoring 60. He hit 8 boundaries as Pakistan closed day-2 at 342-3, with a total lead of 109 runs with 7 wickets still in hand.

Pakistan are now in comfortable position to pile more misery on toothless Bangladeshi bowling attack, who completely failed to take advantage form the pitch despite getting two early wickets. New batting sensation Abid Ali failed to lit up the occasion as on his favourite hunting ground. Abid was back in the pavilion without disturbing the scorers as he was held by Liton Das of the bowling of Abu Jayed.

Azhar Ali looked comfortable and was batting with lot of authority before he too gifted his wicket to Abu Jayed after scoring 34 runs. He hit 4 boundaries before his catch was held by Najmul Hossain.

True champions

Shan and Babar not only kept Bangladeshi bowlers at bay but also scored runs freely and batted like true champions and none of the Bangladeshi bowlers was able to break the partnership as it was only lack of concentration, which resulted in Shan’s dismissal.

Wicket was full of runs right from the word it go. Abid must blame himself for not opening his account as he simply threw away his wicket to a wayward delivery.

ICC ODI team cap

Earlier, great Majid Khan, former captain of Pakistan cricket team and who is the first centurion for Pakistan in the ODIs, handed over ICC ODI of team of the year cap to Babar Azam in a simple but impressive ceremony held at the stadium.

Passionate crowd

It was as usual highly passionate and vocal crowd present in huge numbers at the venue, who were provided excellent entertainment by Shan and especially by Bababr.

When Babar came to the crease after the fall of captain Azhar’s wicket, entire crowd erupted as they were chanting Babar name, Babar, who had played majority of his cricket in Islamabad and Rawalpindi as he represented Islamabad Region in first class cricket, responded in true style.

He acknowledged crowd’s overwhelming support by hitting the opponent bowlers to all sides of the park. Presence of PCB Director Media Sami-ul-Hassan Burni also made huge difference as he ensured complementary passes, which were kept under custody of Pindi Stadium manager a day earlier were distributed amongst the masses. Sami had passed on clear directives to his staff that let spectators enter the venue without any disturbance.

Scoreboard

Bangladesh 1st innings 233 (Mohammad Mithun 63, Najmul Hossain Shanto 44; Shaheen Shah Afridi 4-53)

Pakistan 1st innings

Shan Masood b Islam 100

Abid Ali c Das b Jayed 0

Azhar Ali c Shanto b Jayed 34

Babar Azam not out 143

Asad Shafiq not out 60

Extras: (b 1, lb 3, nb 1) 5

Total: (for three wkts; 87.5 overs) 342

Still to bat: Haris Sohail, Mohammad Rizwan, Yasir Shah, Mohammad Abbas, Shaheen Shah Afridi, Naseem Shah

Fall of wickets: 1-2 (Abid), 2-93 (Azhar), 3-205 (Masood)

Bowling: Ebadat 14.5-2-78-0, Jayed 20-2-66-2, Rubel 17-3-77-0 (1nb), Islam 34-5-111-1, Mahmudullah 2-0-6-0

Toss: Pakistan

Umpires: Nigel Llong (ENG) and Chris Gaffaney (NZL)

TV umpire: Marais Erasmus (RSA)

Match referee: Richie Richardson (WIS)