Butt gives hope as Pakistan chases huge score of 440 runs

The Pakistani team which was bowled out for meager 148 runs in their first innings have a ray of hope as the Vice- Captain Salman Butt cruised past the Australian bowlers to make an unbeaten 50 on the end of the third day of the match. Butt who reached his tenth test half century in the match along with the Test debutant Azhar Ali helped Pakistan score 114 for one in their second innings at the close of the day. Salman Butt and Azhar Ali remained not out at the scores of 58 and 28 runs respectively. However Pakistan has still a daunting task ahead as they have to make 326 runs more to reach the record breaking total of 440 runs to win the match.

The left handed opener Salman Butt played his shots confidently hitting three fours in five balls off Doug Bollinger giving the bowler goose bumps. However the 50 run partnership between Butt and Imran Farhat was broken when Farhat mistimed a pull off leg spinner Steven Smith long hop straight to Shane Watson at mid-wicket giving debutant smith his first maiden wicket. Pakistan could have lost another wicket of Ali as there was a huge appeal for lbw off Ben Hilfenhaus on the last ball of the day. However the veteran South African Umpire Rudi Koertzen dismissed the appeal and ruled in the batsman favour.

Australia which resumed batting on the third day of the game from 100 for four was bowled out for 334 runs in their second innings. Pakistan had to take some wickets quickly to keep the control of the match but their efforts went in vein as Simon Katich played a wonderful inning scoring 83 runs. Night Watchman Mitchell Johnson played handsomely scoring 30 runs. Debutant wicketkeeper Tim Paine playing in place of the injured Brad Haddin scored 47 runs and shared a wonderful partnership of 74 runs for the ninth wicket with Hilfenhaus. Hilfenhaus remained not out scoring his test best of 56 runs. Hilfenhaus reached his fifty in 81 balls striking a six off Asif in the extra cover and hitting six fours. Bollinger scored 21 runs and his last wicket partnership of 52 runs came to an end when he was bowled by leg-spinner Danish Kaneria.

Katich and Marcus North lost their wickets to Umar Gul and Mohammed Asif respectively. Paine’s tremendous innings came to an end when he misjudged the leg spin of Pakistani Captain Shahid Afridi and was bowled.

By: Shruti Roy