Follow UsWicketkeeper-batter Mohammad Rizwan believes Nauman Ali's 18-ball 0* was as important as his 177-ball 104* in helping Pakistan pull off a stunning draw in the second Test against Australia in Karachi. The hosts were bundled out for just 148 in the first innings but batted out 171.4 overs in the second essay to save the Test.
Abdullah Shafique (305-ball 96) and Babar Azam (425-ball 196) were superb at the top but Pakistan lost three wickets in the space of five overs to give Australia an opening in the final session of day five. However, Rizwan and Nauman Ali managed to see off 46 deliveries and ensured the three-match series stayed levelled at 0-0, with everything to play for Lahore.
"In victory the value of a hundred or a zero is the same because at that time, for us, the 18 balls Nauman faced, were more important for us. If I had scored a hundred and we had lost the game, it would've had no value. So his 0 and my hundred were of the same value," Rizwan said in a PCB video.
"He was really compact at the crease which gave me a lot of confidence. At stages like this, you think of getting singles on the 4th or 5th ball but when you have a compact player at the other end, you don't need to try anything different, you don't need to look for that single or boundary."
Of late, Rizwan has been a consistent performer for Pakistan in all three formats. The right-hander put on a partnership of 115 runs with Azam and the two batted together more than 40 overs to ensure that the tail wasn't exposed early.
Talking about his preparations, Rizwan said: "I tried different drills to prepare. I asked Iftikhar (Ahmed) in the nets to use tape-ball and bowl from angles like Pat Cummins did. Then I asked Zahid [Mahmood, the legspinner] to bowl to me in the rough area around the crease where we'd made marks from our spikes. I asked him to bowl in the flatter areas as well so to pick up where the ball was skidding. This is the kind of prep and work you have to do for match situations."
The 29-year-old managed to get to his second Test century in the second-last over of the day but Rizwan said he wasn't thinking too much about it. "The hundred wasn't really on my mind especially when Nathan Lyon came on at that end. I knew I could get boundaries off the legspinner (Mitchell Swepson) because he was trying really hard, and ending up bowling either short or full tosses, so I thought I had a chance there. Then Lyon bowled that (penultimate) over and I thought no, no hundred, we just need to survive this over and then draw.
"But he bowled one I could cover drive, which I did, and one through midwicket. Then (on 99) I said to Nauman that I'll call the single in front of square, you see otherwise, and only if it is a long single. Otherwise I was taking single on every fourth or fifth ball so that I could play the next over all by myself. I hit one straight back to Lyon (and had to scamper back to the crease) and then got one in the gap to get there."
The two teams will now meet at the Gaddafi Stadium in Lahore for the third and final Test, starting on Monday (March 21), and Rizwan feels Pakistan will be a lot more confident after what they achieved in Karachi.
"Just imagine it's an international Test match, last session of the fifth day and the way we pulled out a draw that was historic. Surviving the last two days isn't a small thing and that too against the world's top-ranked team."