Babar Azam with a majestic century but England end Day 3 on top
Pakistan v England — Rawalpindi Day 3.
Pakistan v England — Rawalpindi Day 3.
Stumps Day 3: Pakistan 499 for 7 (Trail by 158 runs)
As is common and seemingly customary in this part of the cricketing world, the crowd increased rapidly when their local hero and captain approached the wicket for the first time with bat in hand and 126 balls later, Babar Azam raised his bat aloft in a muted celebration of a quite brilliant and carefree century. His Pakistan team needed it. Still trailing by a bucketful of 1st innings runs, Azam continued to caress and cajole the ball around a loud and lively Pindi Cricket Stadium until when on 136, he “holed out” to Jack Leach giving the England spinner the first of two catches today and the second of three wickets for fellow spinner, and a part-time one at that on his Test Match debut, Will Jacks.
The departure of the Pakistan captain left his team on 473–5 and was the first of three late wickets today that firmly turned this Test Match in favour of the touring England team. They toiled on a dead wicket as did their hosts for a day and a half before them, and throughout an afternoon session entirely dominated by Babar Azam and Saud Shakeel where it appeared as though we were approaching an impasse and an almost certain stultifying, if high scoring, draw. Following both Abdullah Shafique and Imam ul-Haq completing their centuries in the morning session, the records continued to tumble in this extraordinary Test Match as they joined England opening batsmen Zak Crawley and Ben Duckett with centuries and opening partnerships of 200+, in and of itself a record, before Babar Azam’s afternoon session century became the seventh in this Test Match and now just one short of another all time Test Match record.
Prior to the demise of the Pakistan captain, the game appeared to be drifting toward an inevitable draw and may still do so on this docile and dead wicket. However, huge praise is reserved for England captain Ben Stokes who although was rather forced to continually rotate his bowlers as well as relying on the part-time bowling exploits of debutant Will Jacks and ex captain Joe Root, where Stokes excelled was with his intuitive and attacking field placements (see his own catch to dismiss Mohammad Rizwan) as well as the way he led his team in trying conditions and not settling for a stale draw. Huge kudos is also reserved for England’s 40 year old timeless legend James Anderson who snagged the crucial 6th wicket to fall (Rizwan above) and who has conceded just a paltry 47 runs from his 20 overs.
Stokes thoughtful and inventive captaincy combined with five wickets from his spin bowlers Jack Leach and Will Jacks have slowly but surely turned the destiny of this Test Match from an almost certain bore draw to a possible exciting run chase on the final day. I’m pleased to note in closing that tomorrow’s first session is absolutely vital and priceless in terms of the positive possible outcome(s) available to both teams (as England are sure to crash and smash their way to as many quick runs as they can accumulate in order to set up a competitive game) and in a long ago this morning we had the pun intended spectacle of England bowler Jack Leach bowling to Pakistan opening batsman Imam ul Haq, with both players, and international sportsmen, both wearing glasses.
It’s probably a record of sorts, but we’re already swamped in them in this most extraordinary of Test Matches.
See you tomorrow!
Thanks for reading. Please feel free to dance amongst the madness of my archives, or revisit days 1 and 2 here:
Record tumble in Rawalpindi as England put Pakistan to the sword
Pakistan v England — Rawalpindi Day 1.medium.com
Pakistan fight back in a slowly developing stalemate in Rawalpindi
Pakistan v England — Rawalpindi Day 2.medium.com