Babar and Shafique halt Australia's push for victory

Amid the uncertainty of what precisely awaited them on their first tour to Pakistan in 24 years, Australia's Test team leaders carried one surety – that their hosts would look to play the "long game" with the inevitable result being periods of "grinding" cricket.

With nine of a possible 15 days of Test match play completed, that has proved true repeatedly, but never has it been more painfully obvious than today.

On the back of a memorable unbeaten hundred from skipper Babar Azam – his first in Tests for more than two years and across 21 innings – Pakistan have not only pushed the second Test into a final day, but he has given his team a shot at securing an extraordinary draw.

Upon reaching his milestone, Babar turned to his teammates who stood in applause and signalled for them to remain calm as if suggesting the apparently grim match situation remained in hand while he was at the crease.

After being knocked over in two sessions of forgettable batting a day earlier, Pakistan re-gathered that foreshadowed resolve in a hopeless pursuit of a 506-run target to enter the final day at Karachi tomorrow 2-192 and with some even daring to dream of an improbable win with 314 runs still needed.

When opener Imam ul Haq (1) and veteran number three Azhar Ali (6) were removed either side of lunch, with Australia having declared their second innings after half an hour's batting this morning, the hosts appeared on track for another implosion.

However, 22-year-old opener Abdullah Shafique dug in with his captain to fashion a third-wicket stand that surpassed the 148 their team managed in their entire first innings and reached 171 by stumps as the previously rampant Australia attack went wicketless across almost two sessions.

They will resume tomorrow with Babar unbeaten on 102 and Shafique 71no eyeing the second hundred of his nascent Test career with the first coming in last week's first Test at Rawalpindi, with a minimum of 90 overs available to Australia.

It was as if the surface upon which reverse swing proved such a weapon on day three had been spirited away overnight and replaced with the benign track that had so infuriated bowlers and cricket lovers at Rawalpindi last week.

Australia will this evening reflect on what changes in strategy they might need to rekindle their push for victory on tomorrow's final day, but will also rue the chances they missed off Shafique, most glaringly the straightforward slips catch grassed by Steve Smith when he was 20.

There was also a near-miss run out chance soon after, but for most of their union that has so far prevailed almost four and a half hours, the Pakistan pair rarely looked uncomfortable which was a stark change from the previous day when their team's wickets fell at a dizzying rate.

Prior to his squad's departure for Pakistan last month, interim men's team coach Andrew McDonald noted that while the pitch conditions they would encounter were a mystery, they expected their hosts would play at a pace that ensured matches went deep into the fifth day.

But after their demolition job in Pakistan's first innings, and given the apparently hopeless position they faced beginning their second with almost six full sessions to survive and save a Test that was clearly beyond winning, they couldn't have expected this game to go as deep as now seems possible.

The Karachi pitch that enabled reverse swing and exhibited increasingly variable bounce on day three revealed only occasional glimpses of either despite being subjected to an extra day of baking heat and heavy foot traffic.

Pakistan made it clear at the very outset of today's innings they had no intention of pursuing runs as they approached their task in pure survival mode, with Australia's new-ball pair Mitchell Starc and Pat Cummins beginning with four consecutive maidens.

But the introduction of spin pair Mitchell Swepson and Nathan Lyon from that point brought the initial runs, followed soon after by the first wicket.

The latter event came with Lyon's fourth delivery when dual century-maker from the first Test Imam ul Haq pushed limply forward at a ball that went on with Lyon's arm from around the wicket and trapped the left-hander stone dead in front of his stumps.

Any disappointment in the Pakistan dressing room with the early loss would have been replaced by annoyance when Imam decided to squander a review on the palpably correct decision, which only served to confirm the consensus view the ball would have hit middle stump halfway up.

Lyon and Swepson then operated in a parsimonious partnership for almost an hour before Cummins decided to check if reverse swing was on offer, and deployed himself and Starc for a couple of overs prior to lunch that revealed there was little evidence of movement.

When play resumed, all-rounder Cameron Green was charged with finding the elusive weapon but, rather than reverse swing, it was double-bluff that netted Australia a prized scalp.

Azhar Ali – the only batter in the Pakistan XI to survive 400 balls in a Test innings, having achieved the feat three times – saw Green bang his second delivery halfway down the Karachi pitch and instinctively ducked only for it to skid through barely bail height.

In scenes reminiscent of Glenn McGrath's dismissal of Sachin Tendulkar at Adelaide in 1999 – a decision that still draws incendiary reactions from India fans – Azhar was adjudged lbw to the disbelief of the bowler who struggled to suppress an embarrassed giggle.

It also seemed to catch both Pakistan batters by surprise, with Azhar apparently unsure of where the ball had struck him when consulting with batting partner Shafique before he left the field.

The fact neither the veteran nor the young opener thought to review might have reflected a reluctance born from Imam's profligacy, but had they sought a second opinion it would have shown the ball had brushed Azhar's glove and the decision would have been overturned.

It was a bonus wicket, and should have been followed by another more traditional success six overs later when Cummins drew a false stroke from Shafique and the resultant edge flew waist high to Smith who was the sole slips fielder.

But for the third time in the match, the usually sure-handed Smith turfed the chance that evaded his hands and struck him amidships although in fairness to the former skipper the first two chances were reflex one-handed dives to his left then right that would have yielded memorable grabs had they stuck.

Shafique continued to ride his luck en route to his fourth Test half-century from just seven innings in a fledgling career, and was lucky not have been needlessly run out for the second time in this match when on 33.

The 22-year-old pushed Lyon wide of Green at mid-on and dithered in his crease until he deemed it safe to set off for a single, by which time the fielder had completed a sliding save and leapt quickly to his feet with his off-balance throw narrowly missing the bowler's end stumps with Shafique a metre short.

By contrast, Babar was in total mastery from the time he reached the middle with his team on the precipice at 2-21 and grew in fluency as Australia's bowlers toiled on a track that had seemingly transformed overnight from diabolical to docile.

At one stage, Cummins took to the pitch with a miniature sledgehammer, ostensibly to flatten a divot that had appeared on the popping crease but perhaps also to try and shock some life into the moribund surface

When offered width outside off stump, Babar pounced on any opportunity to drive through cover or punch through point, and on the occasions Australia's quicks dared to dig the ball in he was quick to pull in front of square even if it was marginally above a fielder's head on one occasion.

With the reverse swing gained by Australia's three-pronged pace battery on Monday a mere memory, Babar and Shafique initially endured and then slowly prospered as their third-wicket stand reached 100 shortly after tea, and then 150 in the shadow of stumps.

Not only did their collective resistance frustrate Australia's bowlers who resorted to inventive tactics including Swepson bowling around the wicket and into the leg-side rough in the final hour, it will have emboldened the batters to follow who must now believe the Test can be saved.

Should that happen, it will be viewed as a moral victory for the hosts and ensure Pakistan head into next week's final Test of the Qantas Tour at Lahore with momentum that appeared to have dissipated in the Karachi heat a day earlier.

And Australia will be left to wonder what more they might have done to change today's narrative.

Their second declaration of a match they've bossed since winning the toss on day one came after 26 minutes batting this morning, in which time they added 16 runs to Pakistan's pain and paid for it with the wicket of Marnus Labuschagne.

The anguish apparent on Labuschagne's face after he bottom-edged a pull on to his stumps, when the ball forebodingly failed to rise from the cracked surface, was compounded by Cummins' decision to call an end to the innings immediately after.

While Labuschagne's dismissal for 44 won't markedly alter his Test batting average of just above 56, Usman Khawaja's average since returning to Australia's team at the start of the year has now grown beyond 111 after he remained unbeaten on 44 when the declaration came.

Cummins' call meant his bowlers had at least 172 overs across the remaining day and a lot to secure the 10 wickets needed for a 1-0 lead in the three-Test Benaud-Qadir Trophy series.

And only one team in the history of Test cricket has saved a game by facing more than the (minimum) 1032 balls Pakistan were asked to negotiate at the start of their pursuit.

That was the fabled timeless match at Durban in 1939 when England seemed set to chase down the target of 696 set by South Africa, only to be halted by rain on the 10th day and the imminent departure of their boat home.

Qantas Tour of Pakistan 2022

Pakistan squad: Babar Azam (c), Mohammad Rizwan (vc), Abdullah Shafique, Azhar Ali, Faheem Ashraf, Fawad Alam, Haris Rauf, Hasan Ali, Iftikhar Ahmed, Imam-ul-Haq, Mohammad Wasim Jnr, Naseem Shah, Nauman Ali, Sajid Khan, Saud Shakeel, Shaheen Shah Afridi, Shan Masood, Zahid Mahmood.

Australia Test squad: Pat Cummins (c), Ashton Agar, Scott Boland, Alex Carey, Cameron Green, Marcus Harris, Josh Hazlewood, Travis Head, Josh Inglis, Usman Khawaja, Marnus Labuschagne, Nathan Lyon, Mitchell Marsh, Steve Smith (vc), Mitchell Starc, Mark Steketee, Mitchell Swepson, David Warner. On standby: Sean Abbott, Brendan Doggett, Nic Maddinson, Matthew Renshaw

First Test: Match drawn

March 12-16: Second Test, Karachi

March 21-25: Third Test, Lahore

Australia ODI and T20 squad: Aaron Finch (c), Sean Abbott, Ashton Agar, Jason Behrendorff, Alex Carey, Nathan Ellis, Cameron Green, Travis Head, Josh Inglis, Marnus Labuschagne, Mitchell Marsh, Ben McDermott, Kane Richardson, Steve Smith, Marcus Stoinis, Adam Zampa

March 29: First ODI, Rawalpindi

March 31: Second ODI, Rawalpindi

April 2: Third ODI, Rawalpindi

April 5: Only T20I, Rawalpindi

All matches to be broadcast in Australia on Fox Cricket and Kayo Sports