RAWALPINDI: Marnus Labuschagne and Steve Smith put on an unbeaten 68-runs partnership for the third wicket against Pakistan before the bad light stopped the action of the third day of the first Test, here on Sunday.
After the conclusion of the 73rd over, the umpires called for the bad light and stopped the action which resulted in the early stumps on the third day of the Rawalpindi Test.
Before the stumps, Australia scored 271/2 as Labuschagne and Smith stood firm with their 68-runs stand for the third wicket.
Before walking back to the pavilion, Labuschagne scored an unbeaten 69 with the help of nine boundaries, while Smith is not out for 24; including three boundaries.
The two batters will now resume the proceedings for Australia at 271/2 on the fourth day of the ongoing Test.
Earlier, in the second session, the touring side’s left-handed opener Usman Khawaja, who was eyeing his 11th Test century, missed the milestone by a mere three runs while attempting to play a reverse sweep of Nauman Ali’s delivery and handed an easy catch to Imam-ul-Haq at the silly point.
The left-handed batter scored 97 off 159 balls with the help of 15 boundaries. His opening partner, David Warner, on the other hand, fell in the first half of the session as Sajid Khan castled the left-hander for 68. Warner faced 114 balls and smacked a dozen boundaries.
Resuming at an overnight score of 5/0, Usman and Warner provided a fruitful session to the touring side by adding a further 133 runs into their opening partnership. The pair dominated the first session of the ongoing day and scored at a decent run rate of 4.16.
For Pakistan, Sajid and Nauman managed to make one scalp each.
