The Cricket Plus

Where all the information live

Cricket

‘They will go deep as much as possible’, says Khawaja

admin

By our correspondent
KARACHI: Australia’s opener Usman Khawaja scored his third century in his fourth Test since returning to Test squad last January following a 29-month absence. He was batting on 127 when Australia closed their busy day at 251-3 in their first innings after winning the toss against Pakistan here at National Stadium.
He added 159 runs for the third wicket stand with Steven Smith who was dislodged by Hasan Ali in the second last over of the day for a fine 72.
And Khawaja was very happy with his hundred.
“It’s nice to get a hundred,” Khawaja said in a virtual post day-1 news conference.
“This one, after last week getting 97, it’s got to be up there,” Khawaja said.
Khawaja had fallen on 97 in the first Test at Rawalpindi where top four Australian batsmen had failed to convert solid starts to hundreds.
“It would have been nice to have Smith there at the end too but we had a good partnership,” Khawaja said.
However Khawaja said that they still had more batting to come.
“We have still got a lot of batting to come. It started to reverse in the second session and made it tough to score against the pace bowlers,” said Khawaja.
Khawaja kept receiving a huge applause from the Karachi fans during his stunning knock which lifted Australia.
“Every hundred is special and I think the one in Sydney was more special. As my parents are from here so this is my home. I have been here a lot and this century also meant a lot to me,” Khawaja said.
He said that they will try on Sunday to expedite the run-rate and try their level best to post more runs on the board.
“Yes, tomorrow we will try to extend the total as much we can like 400 or 500, its still a long way to go. We will take it deep as we can,” Khawaja said.“It does feel like now things are going pretty nicely but I know the game can change pretty quickly,” Khawaja said. “I am at a point in my life where it’s about enjoyment more than anything else. Nothing lasts forever and I understand that,” the left-hander said.