New Pakistan captain Shan Masood has fired a warning shot to Australia’s bowling corps with a brilliant unbeaten century in their tour match in Canberra.
Against the Prime Minister’s XI at Manuka Oval, Masood made a big statement in his first innings since assuming the captaincy, stylishly cruising to 156 not out as the tourists finished day one at 6-324.
South Australian speedster Jordan Buckingham was the pick of the PM’s bowlers and finished with 3-63 off 17 overs, delivering just days after being called into the side to replace injured Michael Neser.
Masood’s knock drew gushing plaudits from both camps after stumps, his teammate Abdullah Shafique admitting his captain’s classy innings inspired the rest of the side.
“As a senior batter you need to step up for your team … he did, and this is a confidence-boosting thing for all of the team,” he told reporters.
“He played a brilliant innings, there is something for us all to learn as a batter from his innings.
“This momentum is good for today, but we will have to keep improving things.”
Buckingham agreed, declaring Masood’s innings was “flawless”.
“He played brilliantly, the wicket was obviously conducive to batting but he’s still got to get out there and get the runs,” he told reporters.
“For him to barely give us a chance, it was an outstanding innings and he’d be in for a pretty good summer.”
But cheap wickets prevented the tourists from an even more dominant day with the bat, with Manuka’s flat pitch and hot conditions offering little respite for bowlers.
Star man Babar Azam (40), Shafique (38) and Saud Shakeel (13) all got starts before lazy dismissals stopped them cashing in, the sort of play that will cost them dearly when they face world Test champions Australia in Perth starting next week.
Buckingham removed the opener Imam-ul-Haq for nine, with a beautiful delivery that jagged back off a length and found an inside edge.
“It was certainly a tough grind, we’d have liked to have maybe got a few breakthroughs earlier when the ball was nipping around a little bit,” he said.
“Six wickets, we would probably have taken that about halfway through the day.
“Obviously we’ll try and get the wickets as early as possible (on Thursday) and have the bowlers get their feet up there and let the batters do their work.”
Shan Masood bats. (Photo by Mark Metcalfe/Getty Images)
Six-Test spinner Murphy (1-90 off 22 overs) wasn’t at his best, bowling too short at times.
Masood, who was handed the leadership in the wake of Pakistan’s World Cup exit last month, looked extremely determined throughout his knock and barely celebrated at the 100 or 150-marks.
The battle to become Australia’s next Test opener was put on hold when Masood won the toss and chose to bat.
The three-way ‘bat-off’ between Marcus Harris, Cameron Bancroft and Matt Renshaw is set to highlight the clash, with each a contender to take David Warner’s spot once the veteran opener retires this summer.
Bancroft, who tops the Sheffield Shield run-scoring stats this season after finishing as best batter last term, will open for the PM’s side with Harris, who’s played 14 Tests for Australia.
Rowdy
Roar Rookie
Flaccid deck Hopes up Canberra, where they hold elections
Doctor Rotcod
Roar Rookie
And in remarkable scenes Harris crawled to 49, Bancroft to 53 and even more meritorious, Renshaw's strike rate is 22.6. Another 40 runs and he'll be top scorer, sometime tomorrow...
matth
Roar Guru
I would have loved to see Pierson get a go.
BigGordon
Roar Rookie
You left out the best of the lot - Don Tallon! I'm a huge fan of "gritty" at number 7. We've obviously been spoiled rotten by Gilchrist and his amazing hitting, but he's an outlier, IMO. Pierson wouldn't look out of place in baggy green and would likely make some telling contributions with the bat, just as he does for the Bulls.
Shire
Roar Rookie
Pierson's batting is better than "gritty", to be fair. Impressed me big time in those Australia A games in Sri Lanka last year.
Shire
Roar Rookie
Just went on to score 200. Great start to the tour, regardless of the pitch.
matth
Roar Guru
QLD has always produced quality keepers, Eg Hartley, Seccombe, Healy, Anderson, now Pierson. They rarely get recognized nationally as there is only ever three keeping spots available (test, ODI, T20I) and their batting seems to always be ‘gritty’ rather than worthy of a top 6 spot
BigGordon
Roar Rookie
I'm guessing before the summer's over, there will be at least a half dozen stories about the catch of the summer (I've already seen at least one on this site so far), but for mine, that Pierson catch will take some beating. It wasn't some outfield spekkie where the fielder runs dives, does somersaults, etc, but it was incredibly difficult and as you said, he made it look easy. A wonderful piece of glovework.
matth
Roar Guru
The catching was the best part of the day. Bancroft took a beauty at slip, but for me Pierson’s catch down the leg side while standing up to the medium pacer was sublime. Brilliant footwork made a terribly difficult catch look easy
BigGordon
Roar Rookie
Exactly the type of innings Pakistan needed to rally the squad around the new skipper. I thought most of the guys I saw bat looked good, though it probably wasn't that difficult, given the very placid pitch and the strange bowling tactics from the PM XI. Once the shine went off the ball, they resorted to a lot of short stuff on a pitch with slow bounce. I guess if you bowl enough of that sort of stuff it might get a wicket, but it made for uninspiring cricket. Todd Murphy also seemed out of sorts, but in fairness, he wasn't helped by conditions. Super impressed with the last two catches though. The concentration and skill shown by Pierson and Bancroft, late in the day, were outstanding.
Timmuh
Roar Guru
Manuka is a docile pitch by Australian standards at the best of times, and was slow and low on day one even by Manuka standards. Pace and bounce won't be as friendly to Pakistani batsmen on any of the Test decks, even if preparation is similarly hampered by rain in the week or two leading into games.
Damo
Roar Rookie
C, almost D grade attack + standard flaccid Canberra deck = still not getting my hopes up for a competitive series.