Babar, Asad rescue Pakistan against Australia A in the three day tour game.

A successful call at the toss allowed the tourists first use of a Perth surface that proved more docile than the pitch prepared for last year's Test against India. This combined with a pink Kookaburra ball that lost its hardness through the middle of the day allowed Azam and Asad Shafiq the chance to get themselves into Test match rhythm after a horrid Twenty20 series.

Their unbeaten stand was worth 276 by the close of the play, frustrating the aspiring Test batsmen opposed to them but also heartening the touring party. 

Azam made a typically effervescent start after the Pakistanis had slipped to 3 for 60 before lunch, but in contrast to so many of his first-class and Test innings he knuckled down after the early flurry to turn an attractive cameo into a truly substantial score.

Shafiq proved the ideal partner, as the pair pushed through into the evening, floodlit session and successfully negotiated the second new ball despite some nifty late swing from Jhye Richardson and Michael Neser.

Shan Masood was dropped in the slips by Marcus Harris off Neser in the day's third over, though the Queenslander did not have long to wait for a victim as the touring captain Azhar Ali shuffled across and was deemed lbw to a delivery that may have gone on to hit leg stump. 

Meredith's entry to the match, having seen his cause aggressively pursued by Shane Warne among others, brought plenty of speed but not much control. The wild variety was enough to bewitch Haris Sohail into vague prod wide of the off stump for an edge through to the Australia A captain Alex Carey. Then, there was undoubted venom to the bouncer that trapped Masood on glove or bat handle from around the wicket for a gently lobbed catch to Abbott running in from point.

But Azam and Shafiq were more difficult to intimidate, cuffing no fewer than 37 boundaries between them in a partnership that endured all the way through to lunch, then tea, then stumps. Twenty-four of them raced from Babar's blade, in a demonstration of class that will not have been lost on Langer, the Test captain Tim Paine nor Mitchell Starc, Pat Cummins and Josh Hazlewood.

As for Shafiq, this was an innings to remind all present and a few absent of his heroics at the Gabba four years ago..

The presumable back bones of Pakistan's batting line up finished their innings retired out having found no bowler to do it for them. Babar retired with 157, Asad with 119.