It started off with an opening century stand in the first innings; Pakistan’s first in 32 Tests. When Muhammad Hafeez was dismissed with the score at 178, he and Shehzad had made Pakistan’s highest opening partnership against New Zealand.
Azhar Ali and Shehzad then continued in the same vein and also recorded a partnership worth more than 150 runs; the first ever time that Pakistan’s first two partnerships have both been 150 runs or more.
Shehzad then became Pakistan’s youngest opener to make 150 but was back in the pavilion after a Corey Anderson bouncer hit him on the helmet and the 22-year-old’s bat crashed onto the stumps.
A CT scan later revealed that Shehzad suffered a ‘depressed fracture of the zygomatic arch [cheekbone] of the skull’, claimed a Pakistan Cricket Board release. If the pain does not subside within 48 hours, the opener may require decompression surgery, confirmed team manager Moin Khan.
Meanwhile, back on the pitch records continued to tumble as Younus Khan and Misbahul Haq amassed their record 12th century stand and then equalled the record for most number of 150-run partnerships ever in an innings with Pakistan’s third.
When both players had passed the score of 80, this became the first instance in Test history where all top-five batsmen scored 80 or more.
Younus also became the second Pakistani after Inzamamul Haq to score more than 1,000 Test runs in a calendar year and soon reached his fourth century in five innings.
Misbah followed suit to make it three in three, only the fifth Pakistani to do so, and Pakistan declared after the skipper reached triple figures to make it four consecutive declarations by the Pakistan side; the first ever in their history.
Published in The Express Tribune, November 11th, 2014.
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