Azhar Ali’s double century could help Pakistan  win the match at MCG?

By .Asghar Ali Mubarak

My real younger brother name  is Azhar Ali and he very happy because Shining on  cricket sky with the help of outstanding performance by  the Pakistani batsman  Azhar Ali posted an imperious unbeaten double-century  help  Pakistan to 9 for 443 declared on the third afternoon of the Boxing Day Test at the MCG.

While rain has cut significantly into the time left in the match, Pakistan’s aggressive intent has pushed the hosts into an increasingly tight corner, and created a situation where the visitors appear to be the only team that can win.

Azhar reached 200 shortly after lunch and finished only three runs short of Viv Richards’ 32-year-old record for the highest score by a visiting batsman in a Test match on this ground. Sohail, included for his bowling potential, took a terrible toll on the tiring Australian attack with the bat. Josh Hazlewood bowled manfully for 3 for 50 from 32.3 precise and persistent overs and got to 100 Test wickets by dismissing the last man to fall before the declaration, Wahab Riaz.Azhar Ali the Asian Don Bradman showed his best performance against Australia and proves that he is a sight for sore eyes. Azhar Ali is a stylish, elegant batsman. In full flow, he his avarice for runs matched that of the Australian legend, and that is why he is dubbed the Asian Bradman. High praise indeed for there has been many greats but none matches the aura of the Don. Australia first became aware of Azhar’s excruciating patience on an A tour in 2009 when he made two 70s that spanned a paint-drying five hours each.The year of 2016 was remain lucky for Asian Bradman, Azhar Ali has scored a triple century, a hundred in England, and now double century in Australia – that too in the Boxing Day Test He might not be the most talked about or attractive batsman in Pakistan’s line up, but Azhar Ali has proven himself to be equal to the best when it comes to scoring Test runs. He started his test debut against Australia tour of England and Ireland, 1st Test Australia v Pakistan at Lord’s, Jul 13-16, 2010 he scored only 16 runs. Azhar Ali is an opening batsman by trade; Azhar has worked his way steadily up Pakistan’s domestic scene since 2006. That was the season he began opening regularly for Khan Research Laboratories, a move that fetched him two hundreds and two fifties in five matches, and he hasn’t looked back. In four seasons since, he’s been averaging 40-plus with 11 hundreds, commendable figures in a country where opening is a modern-day curse.His old fashioned stubbornness drives fast bowlers to drink and fans to resort to Mexican waves, but it’s exactly the style of batting Pakistan has been looking for and his double hundred on Tuesday might just turn this series on its head.Not so long ago Azhar’s record as Pakistan’s one-day captain slumped to the point that the board wanted to sack him, but to save their star batsman the embarrassment they asked him to stand down instead. Azhar went away and thought about it for two days before coming back to the PCB and telling them to shove it.“Sack me if you want, but I ain’t walking.” The 31-year-old is still ODI captain.

On othersday that bold defiance was on show again at the MCG, as Ali grinded his way bit by bit to his 12th Test match century – sucking the life out of Australia’s bowlers with every defensive stroke.

After going full sessions without scoring boundaries, it took Ali 217 balls to make his hundred – but it was the kind of tough-as-nails ton that can turn the course of a tour.

Since Azhar’s debut at Lord’s in 2010, he has scored more Test runs than Virat Kohli, Hashim Amla, Misbah ul-Haq and AB de Villiers.

This calendar year he has made over 1000 runs, with a resume that includes a 139 against England at Edgbaston, and a 302 not out against the West Indies – only the fourth triple hundred by a Pakistani.

Now it’s been capped off by a memorable hundred at cricket’s coliseum, with his fighting knock only the ninth Pakistani century at the MCG in Test history. A stoic opener after Bill Lawry’s own heart, the Australian captain they used to call the corpse with pads couldn’t help but admire a fine hundred from the commentary box, with his only criticism a question mark over Ali’s bunny hop-style celebration complete with fist pump.

The moment of jubilation was a far cry from David Warner’s trademark leaping celebration, but then again Azhar’s barely played an attacking shot off Australia’s ever-consistent quicks Josh Hazlewood and Jackson Bird all day. At times the play was more exciting when the covers were on and the rain was falling.

There were no chances given, with Australia becoming so desperate they called for DRS only for replays to show a ball had missed his bat by miles and instead flicked his pants on the way through to keeper Matt Wade.

A genuine nick was offered much later in the day, but it didn’t quite carry into Wade’s gloves.

A direct hit would have had him run out by Nathan Lyon, but by that point he had already scored his hundred.

Azhar is one of the toughest openers in world cricket with a world class record to prove it.

Tuesday his 115-run partnership with Gabba hero Asad Shafiq (50) again reminded Australia of Pakistan’s fighting DNA.

Azhar is Pakistan’s unmovable object and Australia must find a way to budge him if they’re to win this series. An imperious Azhar Ali and destructive Sohail Khan sent the Australians scurrying on the third day at the MCG.

 

This is a year in which Azhar is now the fifth leading run-scorer in the world, mingling with the likes of Joe Root, Jonny Bairstow and Virat Kohli (though, at a party, you sense he might gravitate towards the fourth man ahead of him, Alastair Cook). It is a year in which he has scored a triple hundred, in which he has scored a hundred in England, and now this, the big one: a hundred in Australia, in the Boxing Day Test no less. Credentials are rarely established more emphatically. In some ways, it is difficult to believe he has done all this; that he has an average currently creeping towards 47. Think back to those first appearances in Test cricket in that summer in England when it swung more than an Andy Warhol bash in the ’60s. He struggled, oh how he struggled, and yet… and yet, he toughed it out, in a way that said he wasn’t, perhaps, born to bat. And it is true that he did not begin life as a batsman: he batted at No. 9 in his first-class debut and at eight for a few games thereafter. Not until his eighth game did he move to five, nearly four years after his debut. And five years after his debut, ten matches in, he first played at one down; nominally, he was a leg spinner, but he didn’t bowl much those days.

Those first international runs in England, Misbah said the other day, were the making of him as a batsman. Those early innings also remain the template of his batsmanship because watching him at times is to be reminded of Shane Warne’s observation of Monty Panesar: that he hadn’t played 33 Tests but one Test 33 times. Warne’s was a more cutting comment, aimed at Panesar’s lack of evolution. That is not true of Azhar, but, some days, you could walk into an Azhar innings on 111 and believe, mistakenly, that he is on 11 on debut. Waqar Younis, twice his coach for Pakistan, has a tangentially related theory. He believes Azhar absorbs the presence of whoever he is batting with at the time and then begins to mirror it – so that if his partner is struggling, Azhar begins to look like he is as well, or if the partner is rotating the strike well, then Azhar perks up too.

It is an interesting observation, from a man who has watched much of Azhar’s international career at close quarters. But it doesn’t mask the fact that he has grown as a batsman, even if he can still eke out an almighty struggle in a way that Shafiq never might.

Look at the way he has developed his limited-overs game, even if there might be sniping that it is still some way behind what modern ODI batting is. It is a long distance between where he was at the start of his ODI career and where he is now. Look at the hundred that powered the Sharjah chase. And look even at his hundred in this Test. There was a period at the start of the England tour earlier this year when it looked as if England had him condemned, targeting his pads early and exploiting a tendency to fall over as he attempted to play through leg. Three times in the first four innings of that series, he was lbw.

He went away, worked on his balance at the crease and scored a hundred at Edgbaston. Yesterday and today, the full fruits of that work were evident in five straight-driven boundaries, which represent, surely, the most pristine driving of his career. Until a little while ago, you could have reasonably expected him to clip some of those deliveries through midwicket.

Not least impressive is that he has done this even as the prickly issue of his ODI captaincy rumbles along. He was actively booed by some sections of the crowd in the ODI series against West Indies in the UAE this year. It would have been reasonable if the uncertainty there had an impact on his Test batting, but it hasn’t. That ODI conversation is a valid one, and it will happen in another place, on another day.

Azhar Ali Born February 19, 1985, Lahore, Punjab

Current age 31 years 313 days

Major teams Pakistan, Khan Research Laboratories, Lahore, Lahore Eagles, Lahore Lions, Lahore Qalandars, Pakistan A

Playing role Top-order batsman

Batting style Right-hand bat

Bowling style Leg break

Batting and fielding averages

	Mat	Inns	NO	Runs	HS	Ave	BF	SR	100	50	4s	6s	Ct	St
Tests	55	104	7	4377	302*	45.12	10546	41.50	11	24	407	13	55	0
ODIs	42	42	3	1568	102	40.20	2074	75.60	3	9	144	11	5	0
First-class	144	249	24	9166	302*	40.73			29	38			123	0
List A	142	126	21	5162	132*	49.16			14	29			34	0
Twenty20	49	49	4	985	72	21.88	941	104.67	0	3	98	16	24	0

Bowling averages

	Mat	Inns	Balls	Runs	Wkts	BBI	BBM	Ave	Econ	SR	4w	5w	10
Tests	55	25	633	422	5	2/35	2/49	84.40	4.00	126.6	0	0	0
ODIs	42	14	258	260	4	2/26	2/26	65.00	6.04	64.5	0	0	0
First-class	144		2886	1765	43	4/34		41.04	3.66	67.1	2	0	0
List A	142		2370	2150	61	5/23	5/23	35.24	5.44	38.8	2	3	0
Twenty20	49	15	267	283	15	3/10	3/10	18.86	6.35	17.8	0	0	0

Career statistics

Test debut	Australia tour of England and Ireland, 1st Test: Australia v Pakistan at Lord’s, Jul 13-16, 2010
Last Test	Australia v Pakistan at Brisbane, Dec 15-19, 2016 scorecard
ODI debut	Ireland v Pakistan at Belfast, May 30, 2011 scorecard
Last ODI	Pakistan v West Indies at Abu Dhabi, Oct 5, 2016 scorecard
First-class debut	2001/02
Last First-class	Australia v Pakistan at Brisbane, Dec 15-19, 2016 scorecard
List A debut	2000/01
Last List A	Pakistan v West Indies at Abu Dhabi, Oct 5, 2016 scorecard
Twenty20 debut	Abbottabad Rhinos v Islamabad Leopards at Karachi, Feb 24, 2006 scorecard
Last Twenty20	Islamabad United v Lahore Qalandars at Dubai (DSC), Feb 17, 2016 scorecard

Recent matches

Bat & Bowl	Team	Opposition	Ground	Match Date	Scorecard
0/35, 5, 0/27, 71	Pakistan	v Australia	Brisbane	15 Dec 2016	Test # 2240
23, 1/25, 82*, 1/1	Pakistanis	v CA XI	Cairns	8 Dec 2016	FC
0/4, 1, 0/19, 58	Pakistan	v New Zealand	Hamilton	25 Nov 2016	Test # 2237
15, 31, 1/6	Pakistan	v New Zealand	Christchurch	17 Nov 2016	Test # 2234
–	Pakistanis	v NZ A	Nelson	11 Nov 2016	FC
0, 0/16, 91	Pakistan	v West Indies	Sharjah	30 Oct 2016	Test # 2229
0, 79	Pakistan	v West Indies	Abu Dhabi	21 Oct 2016	Test # 2226
302*, 0/6, 2	Pakistan	v West Indies	Dubai (DSC)	13 Oct 2016	Test # 2224
101	Pakistan	v West Indies	Abu Dhabi	5 Oct 2016	ODI # 3789
9	Pakistan	v West Indies	Sharjah	2 Oct 2016	ODI # 3788