Arthur applauds Azhar’s ‘toughness of mind’

Pakistan’s batting may have lost them the series at the MCG but it has also been the one suit in which they have competed hardest with Australia. Twice they have gone past 400; the previous time they had crossed 400 in Australia, was 33 years ago when they also did it two innings in a row. The only problem of course has been the 142 and 163 that have bookended these two scores.

Nevertheless they will look to their batting once again to salvage what they can from this dead rubber Test at the SCG. That begun disastrously on the second afternoon as they lost two wickets in their innings’ fourth over, before Azhar Ali and Younis Khan – not for the first time – began the repair work with a stand so far of 120.

Azhar in particular appeared in pristine touch, continuing from where he left of at the MCG. He was on 58 at the close, bringing his tally since the start of last year to 1256 runs at an average of 66.10. He is just 18 runs short of 400 runs for the series.

“He has been fantastic,” said Pakistan coach Mickey Arthur. “Over the last one year he has been the cornerstone of our batting. Just to see him come out with the intent as he did today is amazing.

“The amount of time he has spent on field actually on this tour… we were just talking about it in the dressing room, it is almost beyond belief. For him to keep going, keep …

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