Pakistan pacer Shaheen Afridi got involved in a fierce on-field battle with Australian batter Usman Khawaja on the first day of the second Test between the two teams at Karachi.
Usman continued his decent run of form with the bat in the series by notching up a second continuous fifty. However, Shaheen Afridi tested his temperament and technique with some excellent pace bowling displays.
Khawaja survived the bouncer barrage of Shaheen Afridi and did not loose control of his concentration due to the pacer’s aggressive antics.
Shaheen vs Khawaja 😅#BoysReadyHain l #PAKvAUS @Uz_Khawaja @iShaheenAfridi pic.twitter.com/ZyNL0b5WMc
— Pakistan Cricket (@TheRealPCB) March 12, 2022
Earlier in the day, Australia won the toss and chose to bat first. Openers David Warner and Usman Khawaja gave them a fine start with an 82-run opening partnership. Faheem Ashraf gave the first breakthrough to the hosts by scalping Warner’s wicket. Soon after that, Marnus Labuschagne went away via run-out.
Then Steve Smith joined hands with Khawaja and had an 81-run unbeaten partnership to consolidate the innings at Tea on Day 1.
Talking about his performance, Babar Azam said
“I think the way we dominated and we also picked up their 10 wickets. We also scored hundreds with Abdullah Shafique batting maturely and Imam scoring back-to-back tons. Our senior pro Azhar Ali also batted well and we got a lot of momentum which we will take into the next Test.”
