KARACHI: Pakistan’s left-handed opener Imam-ul-Haq opened up on his mix-up between the wicket with skipper Babar Azam and asserted that the latter could not hear his call.

Babar fell prey to miscommunication in the 25th over when Pakistan were struggling to overcome the horrible start. Imam worked through Michael Bracewell’s delivery with Henry Nicholls chasing.

The skipper wanted to make it three and ran desperately after completing the second. Imam, on the other hand, started off but soon stopped with Babar already more than halfway down with Imam returning to his crease and Bracewell did no mistake to dislodge the bails.

Imam in an interview following the conclusion of the second day’s play of the second Test responded to a question regarding Babar’s frustrating run-out after both batters ended up at the same end and termed it miscommunication.

“Look it is cricket and run-outs happen. Unfortunately, we have been in such a situation two-three times before and I also got run-out against West Indies and today he got run-out,” said Imam.

“It is a part of the game and now will try to console him,” Imam added cheekily.

“Once again, it is cricket. But, I think it was a misunderstanding and he could not listen to my call of ‘No’ so he kept running and when I saw him he was standing right beside me and it was too late then,” Imam shared.

“So, such miscommunication occurs in cricket sometimes,” he concluded.

It is worth mentioning here that New Zealand pushed Pakistan to the backfoot by dismantling the hosts’ top order after posting a mammoth 449 runs in the first innings of the ongoing second Test.

Left-handed batters Imam and Saud Shakeel, however, launched a counter-attack as they raised a 55-run partnership for the fourth wicket before stumps.

Imam (74*) and Saud (13*) will now resume Pakistan’s first innings at 154/3 as they are still 295 runs behind.

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