Babar Azam goes past Kohli, Bradman, Ponting, Lara to achieve big batting record

A day after Babar Azam scored his sixth Test century, the Pakistan captain went in to convert it into his highest score.

With Pakistan battling to save the Karachi Test against Australia, Babar led from the front and produced a fine knock of 196 to deny the visitors what looked like a potential win.

Long story short, Babar stood in the way of Australia achieving win, and although Abdullah Shafique and Mohammad Rizwan played their parts, the fact that Pakistan will head into the final Test with the series levelled at 0-0 is primarily because of their captain’s resistance.

When the fifth and final day commenced, Pakistan needed to pull off a record chase of 506 runs with eight wickets remaining. But Babar stood tall like a wall, brining up his first Test hundred in over two years and then doubling it in the final session.

With Australia managing to pick up two more wickets in the day and reducing Pakistan to 277/4, it seemed as if another batting collapse was inevitable. But not on Babar’s watch.

He batted splendidly to deny Australia and produced a fighting knock in the fourth innings of a Test match.

Babar may have missed out on a maiden Test double, he went to the top of an elusive list and created a massive His knock is now the highest by a captain in the fourth innings of a Test match.

In the process, Babar left behind the likes of Don Bradman, Virat Kohli and Ricky Ponting, whose best while batting in the fourth innings was 173 not out, 156 and 141 respectively. Babar also leaves behind the legendary Brian Lara, whose highest score in the fourth innings of a Test match is an unbeaten 153.

Not many gave Pakistan a chance when Day 5 got underway, especially how they crumbled in the first innings, losing eight for 88 to be eventually bowled out for 148.

In the second innings however, Babar gutted it out, first with Shafique, who built on his phenomenal form in the series to score 96. Shafique missed out on a hundred with Australia captain Pat Cummins picking up his wicket to give the team a breakthrough.

As Cummins then knocked over Fawad Alam, it allowed Australia to put their foot inside the door but, Babar and Rizwan produced a century partnership. Babar’s marathon knock ended when he edged Nathan Lyon to Marnus Labuschagne at first slip, much to the dismay of the crowd.

That had come in to see their captain breach the 200-run mark. Babar looked like joining the likes of Pakistan greats Javed Miandad and Younis Khan in another elusive list but it wasn’t to be.

Plenty of twists unfolded. Babar’s wicket was followed by Faheem Ashraf’s dismissal the next ball. Sajid Khan struck a couple of boundaries but once Lyon removed him to leave Pakistan on 414/7 with eight overs left, things looked bleak for the home team. But, Rizwan held one end with Nauman Ali and deservingly scored a century to help Pakistan to a draw.