Karachi test
Usman Khawaja smashes 11th test hundred | Steve Smith makes 72 before falling to Hasan Ali
KARACHI
Australia summed-up day 1 of the second test of historic series between Pakistan and Australia at 251-3, with the ‘local boy’ Usman Khawaja leading their attack and scoring a century ton at 127*.
“We (Himself and Steve Smith) had a pretty good partnership before that wicket, but we still have some batting to come. The wicket looks pretty nice and a good one to bat on. It started to reverse in the second session, and that made scoring pretty difficult. They bowled a negative line in the last session, but we didn’t play any rash shots. My family is from Karachi, everyone is born in Karachi, except me. This is where the Khawajas are actually from. It’s nice to get a hundred at this ground, I’ll take it any day,” Khawaja said at the end of day’s play, whose whole family is Karachi-born.
Steve Smith, with whom Khawaja shared the stage for a longer period of time on day 1, fell to Hassan Ali after scoring brilliant 72 (214).
Hassan Ali and Faheem Ashraf shared one wicket each for Pakistan, while Marnus Labuschagne getting run-out in quite cheeky fashion at a golden duck. This was the only second ‘golden duck’ for Marnus, with the first also against Pakistan, back in 2018.
Australian captain Pat Cummins at the toss earlier in morning said pitch was looking ‘good’ to bat on. His Pakistani counterpart Babar Azam had hoped of Karachi pitch being assisting spin bowlers.
