Captain Ricky Ponting led a gritty Australian fightback on the second day of the second test against Pakistan Thursday. Ponting steered his team to 136-2 at the close, just 34 runs behind Pakistan which bowled out the Australia for 88 on the first day at Headingley. Ponting, who scored his first Test century on the same ground, made an unbeaten 61 and shared a stand of 81 with Michael Clarke (32 not out) after Shane Watson had checked Pakistan's progress with test-best figures of six for 33. Australia did not lose a wicket in a final session curtailed by bad light to revive hopes of registering an eighth straight test victory and Ponting became the second man to reach 12,000 Test runs after Sachin Tendulkar of India (13,539)with a boundary to third man off Mohammad Aamer. He acknowledged warm applause from a sparse crowd which had gradually increased throughout the day by raising his arm in the air and then his bat to all parts of the stadium. Pakistan was still in with a chance of a first Test victory over Australia for 15 years but Ponting's side will not have forgotten how it won in Sydney in January after conceding a first-innings deficit of 206 runs to Pakistan. “As we have seen throughout his (Ponting's) career, when times are at their toughest that is when we see his strength of character and quality of him as a player,” Watson told reporters. “He is looking great out there at the moment. From the situation we were in yesterday we knew we had to play some good cricket to get back into the game. We are well on the way though there is still a lot of hard work to be done.” Pakistan resumed on 148-3 after the start was delayed by 45 minutes because of rain. It lost its fourth wicket freakishly when Umar Amin ducked under a bouncer from Ben Hilfenhaus only for the ball to strike the back of his bat and fly to Marcus North at square leg. The main damage was caused after lunch when Watson took four wickets for seven runs in 13 balls, buoyed by the overcast conditions that assisted his out-swing. “The match is in the balance at the moment,” Pakistan coach Waqar Younis said. Gillespie takes coaching job Former Australia Test bowler Jason Gillespie, who was in the running to become England bowling coach after Otis Gibson left, has instead accepted an offer in Zimbabwe. The 35-year-old Gillespie has been signed by the Midwest Rhinos team as head coach for Zimbabwe's upcoming domestic season. Kenyon Ziehl, the franchise's chief executive, confirmed the Gillespie deal to The Associated Press Thursday. Gillespie is replacing former Zimbabwe batsman Andrew Waller as coach of the team. – Reuters Scoreboard Australia (1st Innings) 88 Pakistan (1st Innings) I.Farhat lbw b Watson 43 S. Butt b Hilfenhaus 45 A.Ali c Paine b Watson 30 U. Amin c North b Hilfenhaus 25 U. Akmal c Paine b Johnson 21 S. Malik c Paine b Watson 26 K. Akmal c North b Watson 15 M. Aamer lbw b Watson 00 U. Gul b Watson 00 D. Kaneria run out (Smith) 15 M.Asif not out 09 Extras (b11, lb9, nb9) 29 Total (all out, 64.5 overs) 258 Falls: 1-80 (Butt), 2-133 (Farhat), 3-140 (Ali), 4-171 (U Akmal), 5-195 (Amin), 6-222 (K Akmal), 7-222 (Aamer), 8-224 (Gul), 9-234 (Malik), 10-258 (Kaneria). Bowling: Bollinger 17-4-50-0 (5nb); Hilfenhaus 20.5-3-77-2 (3nb); Watson 11-3-33-6; Johnson 15-0-71-1 (1nb); Smith 1-0-7-0. Australia (2nd Innings) S. Watson b Amin 24 S. Katich b Aamer 11 R. Ponting not out 61 M. Clarke not out 32 Extras (b4, w2, nb2) 08 Total (2 wkts, 41 over) 136 To bat: M. Hussey, M. North, T. Paine, S. Smith, M. Johnson, B. Hilfenhaus, D. Bollinger. Falls: 1-15 (Katich), 2-55 (Watson). Bowling: Aamer 9-2-19-1; Asif 13-1-42-0; Gul 5-0-36-0 (2nb); Amin 6-1-12-1 (2w); Kaneria 8-0-23
