Younis struck seven boundaries during his unbeaten knock of 64

Image courtesy of: Zimbio

Younis Khan and Azhar Ali made 64 and 58 respectively to stabilise Pakistan after they made a shoddy start to their innings on the second day of the third Test in Sydney.

Prior to Pakistan’s innings though, Australia batsman Peter Handscomb stole the spotlight with his second Test century.

Starting off the day on 365/3, Matt Renshaw and Peter Handscomb could only add 21 runs to their 121-run partnership before Renshaw was clean bowled by Imran Khan for a career-best 184, which came off 293 balls and included 20 boundaries.

The 20-year-old etched his name into the record books as he made the highest score by an Australian opener in Tests under the age of 21. The previous record belonged to Archie Jackson, who made 164 on debut in the Ashes in February 1929.

Handscomb and debutant Hilton Cartwright made up for the loss of Renshaw with a 91-run partnership, during which Handscomb surpassed his fifty, before Cartwright was clean bowled by a brilliant delivery from Imran for 37.

Handscomb went on to make a career-best 110, which came off 205 balls and included nine boundaries, before he was out hit wicket after his bat swing grazed the stumps and caused the bail on leg stump to fall.

Handscomb is thrilled after scoring his second Test hundred

Image courtesy of: Zimbio

The 25-year-old is only the second Australian batsman after Herbie Collins to make 50-plus scores in each of the first four Tests of his career. Collins achieved the feat in the 1920/21 Ashes series.

Wicketkeeper Matthew Wade and Mitchell Starc fell shortly after for 29 and 16 respectively before Australia decided to declare on 538/8.

Wahab Riaz was the pick of the bowlers with three wickets, while Imran and Azhar Ali snapped up two wickets apiece. Yasir Shah, meanwhile, chipped in with one.

Trailing by 538 runs, Pakistan lost debutant Sharjeel Khan in the fourth over as he was caught by Renshaw at first slip off the bowling of Josh Hazlewood for four runs.

Hazlewood struck again four balls later as he trapped Babar Azam lbw for a duck.

With Pakistan reeling at 6/2, Azhar Ali and Younis Khan came to the rescue by settling things down with an unbeaten 120-run stand, during which both of them recorded their half-centuries, before stumps was called.

Younis finished on 64 off 112 balls, which included seven boundaries, while Azhar remained undefeated on 58 off 123 deliveries, which included five boundaries.

Azhar’s superb form with the bat continued

Image courtesy of: Zimbio

During his knock, Younis became the fifth Pakistani batsman to score 1000 or more runs against Australia in Test history after Javed Miandad, Zaheer Abbas, Saleem Malik and Ijaz Ahmed.

Hazlewood was the only bowler to take any wickets.

Pakistan ended day two on 126/2 and will continue batting on Thursday at 10:30 local time or 23:30 GMT (the previous day).