Fawad Alam hits 2nd Test 100 in lost NZ match
Fawad Alam’s heroic ton went in vain as the home team won the first Test by 101 runs in Tauranga’s Mount Maunganui stadium on Wednesday.
Eleven years, five months and 16 days on from that other lifetime when he scored his first Test hundred, Fawad pulled Wagner behind square – that shot had served him well both in defence and attack – past a diving deep fielder to bring up a second Test hundred.
The last one he scored was way back in 2009 when he hit 168 on Test debut against Sri Lanka while opening the innings. Since then Alam has played just six Tests having made a comeback in 2020.
Babar Azam’s injury gave him another go and yet he proved to be an ace for the team.
The Green Caps began the final day’s play at 71-3 in chase of 373-run target with Azhar Ali and Fawad batting at 34 and 21 respectively.
He put on a 165-run partnership with captain Mohammad Rizwan who scored a gritty half-century as well. 380 balls faced by Alam and Rizwan during their partnership – the second-longest stand for Pakistan in Tests.
The wicketkeeper-batsman’s dismissal sparked a collapse as he was trapped leg-before by Kyle Jamieson for 60 while Fawad, who hit 14 boundaries in his 102-run knock, was caught behind on the bowling of Neil Wagner.
The tail-end pair of pacemen Shaheen Shah Afridi and Naseem Shah provided resistance to salvage a draw but it wasn’t to be as the latter was caught and bowled by Santner for one with just four more overs to go.
Here are some reactions by cricketing experts on Fawad’s resilient innings:
Later PCB released a video in this fawad talked about his patience and test performance…
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