The third and final Test match of the ongoing 3-match series between Australia and Pakistan which is being played at Lahore’s Gaddafi Stadium started today. The visitors won the toss and opted to bat first following their instincts as they got great results batting first in the second test.
However little did they know what Pakistan’s ace fast bowler Shaheen Afridi had in store for them. When he came in to bowl the 3rd over of the match, Shaheen Afridi completely destroyed the top order of Australia. He first dismissed opener, David Warner, with a beautiful good length in swinging delivery. The delivery came back quite a lot off the seam and completely confused David Warner and he was LBW’ed.
The fourth ball was a dot but he struck on the very next ball, i.e, on the 5th delivery of the over. This time the batsman on strike was Marnus Labuschagne and Shaheen went for an out-swinging delivery. Marnus edged it and was caught by the Wicket-keeper Mohammad Rizwan. Shaheen Afridi thus got his second big wicket in the very third over and it was a massive blow to Australia as both David Warner and Marnus Labuschagne are two of their best Test batters.
However, Australia made a pretty good comeback after that, thanks to the partnership of Steve Smith and opener Usman Khawaja. Usman Khawaja has been their best performer throughout this series and he gave yet another great performance in the first innings of this match. He has already scored 77 runs off 171 and is still not out. He has a good chance to score yet another century today. Steve Smith on the other hand scored 59 off 169.
Currently, Travis Head and Usman Khawaja are batting for Australia and they have scored 161/3 at session 3.