Pakistan with mountain to climb thanks to 'lazy' Butt

Australia 519-8d Pakistan 94-4

Brian McKenna
Saturday 16 January 2010 01:00 GMT
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Pakistan captain Mohammad Yousuf described team-mate Salman Butt as "selfish" after being run out by the opener to leave the tourists in a seemingly hopeless position at the end of day two of the third Test against Australia yesterday.

Butt not only ran out his captain and his team's best batsman in the last half an hour of play, but then incredibly compounded his error by doing the same shortly after to his team's next-best batsman in young gun Umar Akmal. The two costly run-outs left Pakistan in tatters at 94 for four at stumps here in reply to Australia's massive first-innings total of 519 for eight declared and still needing another 226 runs to avoid the follow-on.

Australia captain Ricky Ponting said he would enforce it given the forecast of rain over the final three days.

Pakistan's running between the wickets matched their efforts in the field as Ponting went on to make 209 after being dropped on nought on day one by Mohammad Aamer and again by Imran Farhat when on 167 as Pakistan's total number of dropped catches for the series rose to 16.

The Yousuf run-out occurred after the Pakistan captain played a splendid off-drive off Doug Bollinger and, having run two, called for an easily-gettable third run. But, despite the fact it was Yousuf that was running to the danger end, Butt stood his ground at the non-striker's end, leaving his captain stranded – as he would also do later when Akmal called for a single off the bowling of Nathan Hauritz.

Yousuf branded Butt "a lazy runner", and said: "We are not playing for self, we are playing for country. I am 35 years old, he is 25 years old, why not take three runs?" He lingered for seemingly an eternity after the run-out as he glared at his partner before trudging from the field.

Bellerive scoreboard

Third Test Hobart (Second day of five) Pakistan trail Australia by 425 runs with six first-innings wickets left

Australia won toss

Australia First Innings

Overnight: 302-3

*R T Ponting c Yousuf b Aamer: 209

M E K Hussey c Ahmed b Aamer: 6

M J Clarke b Kaneria: 166

M J North c Ahmed b Asif: 21

†B J Haddin c Gul b Kaneria: 41

M G Johnson c Ahmed b Kaneria: 8

N M Hauritz not out: 12

Extras (b 1, lb 3, w 5, nb 7):16

Total (8 wkts dec, 142.5 overs): 519

Fall: 1-28, 2-52, 3-71, 4-423, 5-443, 6-498, 7-499, 8-519.

Did not bat: P M Siddle, D E Bollinger.

Bowling: M Asif 36-8-104-2, M Aamer 31-7-97-2, U Gul 25-4-98-1, D Kaneria 42.5-2-189-3, S Malik 8-0-27-0.

Pakistan First Innings

I Farhat c Haddin b Siddle: 38

S Butt not out: 34

K Manzoor c Ponting b Siddle: 0

*M Yousuf run out (Johnson): 7

U Akmal run out (Hussey): 8

S Malik not out: 4

Extras (b 1, w 1, nb 1): 3

Total (4 wkts, 36 overs) 94

Fall: 1-63, 2-63, 3-74, 4-84.

To bat: †Sarfraz Ahmed, Mohammad Aamer, Umar Gul, Danish Kaneria, Mohammad Asif.

Bowling: Bollinger 6-2-13-0, Siddle 10-3-20-2, Johnson 7-1-32-0, Hauritz 13-4-28-0.

Umpires: E A R de Silva & R E Koertzen.

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