Aus vs Pak: Saud Shakeel creates history during Perth Test
The left-handed batter emerged as one of Pakistan’s most important batters in recent times
Pakistan’s middle-order batter Saud Shakeel created history during the second innings of the first Test against Australia at Perth Stadium on Sunday.
Shakeel, who is playing his eighth Test match, became the first batter in the history of red-ball cricket to score at least 20 runs in each of his first 15 innings.
The 28-year-old surpassed West Indies’ Everton Weekes' streak of scoring at least 20 runs in 14 consecutive innings.
He is now one innings away from equaling Australia’s Colin McDonald’s record, who posted at least 10 runs in his first 16 Test innings.
Pakistan collapsed badly during their chase of 450 runs and lost half of their wickets before 80 runs as a team.
Not a single batter could stay against the fierce Australian pace attack consisting of Mitchell Starc, Pat Cummins, and Josh Hazlewood.
By the time this story was filed, Pakistan were batting at 79-6 with Saud (21*) and Faheem Ashraf (3*) still on the crease and they needed 371 runs to win.
Commencing a challenging run chase, Pakistan had a dismal start with Abdullah Shafique dismissed for two in the initial over, edging an unplayable delivery from Mitchell Starc to wicketkeeper Alex Carey.
Captain Shan Masood, leading in his maiden Test, didn’t stay much longer, nicking one to Carey off Josh Hazlewood for two, leaving his team in dire straits at 17-2.
Starc further troubled the batting side by dismissing Imam-ul-Haq lbw for 10, before Babar Azam and Saud Shakeel resisted momentarily.
However, their resistance crumbled when Azam edged Cummins on 14, caught again by Carey, leaving Shakeel on 10 and Sarfaraz Ahmed on one at the break.
Earlier today, Australia made a declaration at 233-5 in their second innings on day four after Pakistan were all out for 271.
Captain Pat Cummins made the decision after opener Usman Khawaja departed for a resilient 90 on a worsening pitch, following a 126-run partnership with Mitchell Marsh.
Marsh remained unbeaten at 63 as Pakistan managed to dismiss Steve Smith and Travis Head early in the day, momentarily sparking hope that quickly faded away.
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