'Pakistan prepared for hard work to force victory' – Azhar Ali

With Australia three wickets down and still 326 runs behind, Sarfraz Ahmed's side need to find a way to take seven more wickets on day five to go 1-0 up in the two-match series.

After a strong 87-run opening partnership between Usman Khawaja and Aaron Finch, three wickets fell for the loss of no run as Pakistan seamer Mohammad Abbas did the damage with the ball. But Australia bounced back with an unbroken stand between Khawaja (50*) and Travis Head (34*) taking them to 136/3 at stumps.

"We know always that on this kind of track getting 20 wickets is hard work," said Pakistan batsman Azhar Ali at the close. "But if you stick to your plans then the opportunity comes.

"Again you’ve seen that after the opening partnership between Finch and Khawaja we kept on our plans and the results really came our way.

"Mohammad Abbas executed his reverse-swing skills really well, bowled wicket to wicket and once the guys in get out, it’s a hard pitch to start on, so we know that if we can hang in there, keep building pressure, it’s going to be hard work for the batsmen too."

Pakistan had hopes of instigating the kind of collapse that had reduced Australia from 142/0 to 202 all out in the first innings.

"Sometimes it looks that way," Ali said. "But I think when the batsmen get in there’s equal opportunity for them and it’s hard work for the bowlers. It’s a slow track, but there’s still spin there, and if you can reverse the ball then there are still opportunities. So there’s a lot of hard work to be done but I think we’re standing in a very good position right now."