Day 4: Australia’s bold declaration makes match come alive

Usman Khawaja scored another superb century in this series to put Australia in command.

Pat Cummins declared the Australian second innings at a score of 227-3 and this bold declaration decision has set a target of 351 runs for Pakistan.

Australia   1st innings   391 all-out

Khawaja 91               Naseem 4-58                                                                                                                                   Green 79                   Shaheen 4-79                                                                                                                              Carey 67                    Nauman 1-77

Pakistan   1st innings    268 all-out

Abdullah 81            Cummins 5-56                                                                                                                                  Azhar 78                  Starc 4-33                                                                                                                                                                Babar 67                  Lyon 1-95

Australia        2^nd innings       227-3

Khawaja 104*             Naseem 1-23                                                                                                                                                          Warner 51                   Shaheen 1-45                                                                                                                                    Labuschagne 36          Nauman 1-55

Pakistan       2nd innings        73-0

Imam 42*                                                                                                                                                                             Shafique 27*

Australia made a very aggressive and bold decision to declare the innings with a lead of 350 runs.

It is clear from their declaration that they want to win this series.

Australia has also taken a risk because if Pakistan manages to chase this total then both Cummins and Australian management will face a lot of criticism for this decision.

The Test match has entered in a very interesting scenario in which all three results are possible.

Pakistan can go hard on Australian bowlers tomorrow and win the series.

However, Australia also has a chance to destroy the Pakistani batting lineup with some good reverse swing bowling with the old ball just like the 1st innings where they removed the last 7 Pakistani wickets for only 20 runs.

Partnership between Khawaja and Warner

Khawaja and Warner continued their innings from where they left yesterday.

They batted brilliantly early on and showed intent by smashing some boundaries.

Naseem Shah bowled out Usman Khawaja for 31 runs on an unbelievable delivery but luckily Khawaja survived as the Umpire gave it as front foot line no-ball.

David Warner completed his excellent half-century but just a couple of overs before stumps, he was clean bowled by Shaheen Afridi on a wonderful delivery that costs him his wicket on 51 runs.

Labuschagne joined Khawaja and these two also shared a 50 run partnership.

Labuschagne smashed 6 boundaries before getting caught out on 36 runs.

Khawaja stood patient at the other end and continued to score runs.

Another ton from Usman Khawaja

Usman Khawaja has played superbly in this entire series scoring 496 runs in only 5 innings which is a huge achievement.

Khawaja scored 2 hundreds and two innings of 90 plus runs.

The left-handed batsman registered his 12th International hundred today.

Australia lost Steve Smith before declaring the innings.

Smith was given caught behind for 17 runs to finally reward Naseem Shah for his outstanding bowling performance in the second innings.

Bright start from Pakistani openers

The Pakistani openers have made a very strong and confident start that has made Australia a bit anxious about their decision of early declaration.

Both Imam and Shafique patiently negotiated the new ball snd survived 27 overs before stumps on day 4.

Imam-ul-Haq is batting on 42 while Shafique is unbeaten on 27 runs.

Imam looked a bit dull in his last 3 innings after scoring those two centuries in the 1st Test but he is again looking in great form for a big one.

On the other hand, Abdullah Shafique again got a good start to his innings and he will be the key player for Pakistan tomorrow.