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Mohammad Abbas stars again as Pakistan seal series win over Australia

October 19, 2018

ABU DHABI, Oct 19 (INP): Mohammad Abbas picked up five wickets once again as Pakistan registered a 373-run win over Australia in the second and final Test in Abu Dhabi, sealing a memorable 1-0 series victory. Australia had started the fourth day at 47/1, with Shaun Marsh already back in the pavilion the previous day becoming left-arm pacer Mir Hamza’s debut Test wicket. Having been set a massive target of 538, Australia were in a shaky position at the end of the third day. A motivated Pakistani bowling attack took to the field on day 4, and after Travis Head and Aaron Finch added 61 runs for the second wicket, Head was caught by substitute keeper Mohammad Rizwan off the bowling of Abbas. Rizwan even stood up to Abbas at different stages of the day. From this point, it was an Abbas show for the next two overs as he picked up the wickets of Mitchell Marsh, Finch and Tim Paine, all brought about by the pressure imposed on the batsmen. Australia were reeling at 78-5, when the inevitable was delayed by a 67-run stand between Paine and Marnus Labuschagne. Yasir Shah got the wicket of Starc when he was trapped in front of the stumps for 28, prompting the slide to resume once again. Australia never showed any signs of resistance, and the final two wickets were mopped up by Shah, trapping Peter Siddle in front of the stumps, and Jon Holland being caught by close-in fielder Haris Sohail. Australia were bowled out for 164, with Usman Khawaja not batting in the innings, absent hurt due to the knee injury he sustained during a fielding drill before the start of third day’s play. Earlier, Pakistan scored 282 in the first innings, largely thanks to identical scores of 94 for both opener Fakhar Zaman and captain Sarfraz Ahmed. Australia were bundled out for just 145 runs with Abbas the pick of the bowlers with figures of 12.4 - 4 -33 - 5. In fact, it was Abbas who broke Australia’s back with crucial wickets in the second innings as well and ended the match with a ten wicket haul with overall figures of 29.4 - 6 -95 -10, capping an excellent performance. On the other hand, Australia hardly showed the gumption that they did to save the first Test in Dubai, and were largely outdone by the disciplined lines bowled by the Pakistani pacers, on a track which offered little to no help for them.`