LAHORE, PAKISTAN (AP) – Sedate half-centuries by Cameron Green and Alex Carey lifted Australia to 391 all out against relentless reverse swing from Pakistan on the second day of the third test yesterday.
Allrounder Green made a career-best 79 in his 12th test match and Carey scored 67 in nearly three hours before Pakistan claimed five wickets for 50 runs in the middle session and bowled out Australia just before tea.
Recalled 19-year-old fast bowler Naseem Shah grabbed 4-58 and Shaheen Shah Afridi took 4-79 as their pace and reverse swing on a slow and low-bouncy pitch netted four wickets in the session in hot conditions.
Green and Carey denied the home team in the first session by adding 88 runs, but Pakistan broke them up in the fourth over after lunch.
Left-arm spinner Nauman Ali ended the 135-run, sixth-wicket stand when Carey was plumb leg before wicket as the batter tried to play across the line and was hit on the front pad.
Carey faced 105 balls and dominated the spinners with his reverse sweep shots.
Naseem, who replaced allrounder Faheem Ashraf in the only change Pakistan made from the epic drawn second test, denied Green his maiden test hundred when he clean bowled the tall right-hander off a delivery which shaped into the batter and hit the stumps through a big gap between bat and pad.
Green showed lots of patience and used his feet well against the spinners during his 163-ball knock that spanned well over three and a half hours.
Earlier, Green’s and Carey’s partnership defied Pakistan’s ambitions of restricting Australia after the visitors resumed the day on 232-5.
Left-handed Carey successfully overturned a controversial caught behind decision while Green also completed his half-century in the first session.
Umpire Aleem Dar adjudged Carey out on 27 off Hasan Ali’s full-pitched delivery, but video suggested the ball missed Carey’s bat and might have clipped the off stump as wicketkeeper Mohammad Rizwan caught the bumped ball.
Carey raised his second half-century on the tour off 73 balls when he smashed two successive boundaries in offspinner Sajid Khan’s one over before pushing the ball to wide mid-on for a single.
Green, resuming on 20, reached his half-century off 117 balls when he drove past a diving Sajid for two runs.
