BRISBANE: Asad Shafiq continued his terrific form ahead of the first Testwith his second successive century against an inexperienced CricketAustralia XI attack in the last two-day tour game at the WACA on Friday.
On a day where four Pakistan players passed 50-run mark against an attackwith hardly any first-class experience, exciting South Australia legspinnerLloyd Pope showed his immense promise by dismissing five of Pakistan’s topseven batsmen.
Pakistan were able to give all their batsmen on the tour, bar skipper AzharAli, a chance. Imam-ul-Haq and Abid Ali opened with Shan Masood sliding toNo. 3. While Abid was dismissed for a duck, Imam made 44 and Shan backed uphis half-century against Australia A on Wednesday with 76.
Pope then zipped through the middle order as Haris Sohail’s miserable tourcontinued while Mohammad Rizwan failed to convert his start and wasdismissed for 22.
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But Asad and Babar picked up where they left off against Australia A,putting together another splendid stand of 117. Babar made 63 in just 66balls while Shafiq reached three figures later.
Kashif Bhatti made the most of the easy batting conditions late in the dayand cruised to 56 not out from just 47 balls with the help of nine foursand a six. -APP/AFP
