Australia’s batting coach Michael Di Venuto has praised Pakistani batters Babar Azam and Abdullah Shafique for their fighting knocks on the fourth day of the Test in Karachi.
Australia had set a target of 506 runs for Pakistan.Pakistan was struggling with a score of 21/2 before Abdullah and Babar fought back with an unbeaten third-wicket partnership of 171 to finish the day with a score of 192/2.
Even though Venuto said after the day’s play that Australia is still in a position to win the Test, he did not shy away from praising the Pakistani batsmen.
“We’re still in a position to win this Test match,” he said.“But this was a tough day and there’s no doubt that Pakistan played very, very well.
” Venuto regretted the one opportunity his team lost to remove Abdullah Shafique.The team dropped a catch when the batsman was at 20.“It was a catch we would have liked to take,” he said.
“Steve’s got an outstanding hand, so it’s a catch that he would catch 99 times out of 100.” He said that yesterday Australia got reverse swing when the ball was hard.
Commenting on the pitch the coach said that they expected it to have more variable bounce today.
“When the ball is hard and it’s reversing, that’s a crucial part of the game for us to get some breakthroughs,” he said while talking about the strategy picked for the game.
“Once the ball softens, it certainly becomes easier for batting.” The Australian batting coach said that while they are still in a position to win the match, more hard work will have to be put in by the team.
“It is going to be an interesting day tomorrow and another tough match for us,” Venuto said.—APP
