Babar Azam, Test batsman, neatly encapsulated in the two innings of this Test. In the first, he played a shot that invites scorn upon the idea that he can be a Test batsman. In the second, he played an innings that invites scorn upon those who doubt that he can be a Test batsman.
He ultimately fell one short of a maiden hundred and if we're being snobbish about it, perhaps it is better that way. For a man of his talent, a maiden hundred might look better in more taxing circumstances. When he arrived at the crease today Pakistan were, effectively, 297 for 4, the game comfortably in their grasp.
Still the promise of Babar is such that you can imagine him playing identically had Pakistan been 97 for 4. It was, as his most notable Test innings have been, an accomplished hand - untroubled, elegant, minimalist, and then he wakes you up with a shot so pristine you struggle to forget it.
This year, finally, there have been signs that he is very gradually figuring out Test cricket. He's been given a long enough rope but the 99 was a third fifty in his last four Tests. He averages 54 from a tiny sample and they aren't world-beating figures, but given that he averaged 16 last year with five ducks in 12 innings, Pakistan will take it.
"I'm still waiting [for the 100]," he said. "Missed it today and am very disappointed. That hurts.
"But hopefully in the next series I want to change that. I haven't changed anything about my Test game. I'm still playing as I do usually but maybe I am just a little bit more positive. If I'm going for a shot, then I've just resolved to go for it and not think too much about it."
That positivity backfired on him in the first innings. He fell second ball, bowled by Nathan Lyon having danced out to try and drive him over mid-off. He was part of a Pakistan collapse of 4-0 in six balls and his dismissal, along with Azhar Ali's, were subject to particular scrutiny.
"There wasn't any pressure after that first-innings dismissal. Our plan was that if Nathan Lyon bowled with mid-off and mid-on up, we would take a chance on that. Maybe I went too early, maybe I should've gotten more set and that would've been better."
This is now Babar's highest Test score, but his fifties at Lord's and Malahide in the summer, as well as the unbeaten 90 in Hamilton in 2016, are all probably better innings because of the conditions and circumstances they were made in.
But all put together, they suggest it is only a matter of time before he comes good in the format, before he starts putting together the numbers that he has in white-ball cricket.
"It wasn't so easy to play on that pitch today, because there was plenty of turn. I needed to take a bit of time and then started to play the game according to how I play. The partnership with Sarfraz was important.
"I don't think there is any particular problem in the [Test] format. It's just that some decisions have gone against me, sometimes I haven't done what I am trying to do, or I've gotten close to something and gotten out.
"I don't think too much about it. I know that I just have to go out there and perform."