Pakistan crumble as England take charge of 1st Test
Pakistan v England, Multan — Day 4
PAKISTAN 556 all out and 152–6 (trail by 115 runs)
ENGLAND 823–7 declared
Act One: Records tumble in the sweltering heat of Multan
The grand old game of Test Match cricket has long been resplendent in the simple art of statistics and records, the dots and the maidens and the boundary 4’s that colour a score book from junior level through to the ultimate pun intended test of international cricket, and this morning was no exception. Starting this morning 64 runs behind on 1st innings, England ended the morning session under a blazing Multan sun 102 runs in front, adding 166 total runs and where the Yorkshire pair of Joe Root and Harry Brook entered the field of play unbeaten, they left it two hours later, with a bedraggled, weary and dead on their feet Pakistan team behind them, still unbeaten, and with records galore against their names. Yesterday’s record breaker and headline maker Joe Root gave an early and easy chance this morning that ex Pakistan captain Babar Azam spilled at mid-wicket when on 186 not out before he eased his way to a 6th Test Match double century (from 305 balls received) before 48 balls later reaching 250 not out, then passing his career best of 254 to rest at the Lunch Break unbeaten on 259.
In 2 hours play, Root added 83 largely carefree runs but he wasn’t alone as first his continuing partnership with fellow Yorkshireman Harry Brook passed 300 and then 400, with their total unbroken partnership reaching 409 by the end of the session. Yet another record and with more in their collective sights in the afternoon session, Brook added 77 to his overnight not out total of 141 to first a personal career best of 187 before a first Test Match double hundred and eventual unbeaten score at the break of 218.
400+ run partnership
2 double centurions
658–3 (and ANY score is possible from here with this England team)
All rather remarkable but…a word of caution. Writing this in real time in the Lunch Break this could easily develop into 750 runs v 550 runs and a stale draw on Day 5. This Multan wicket offers absolutely nothing for either set of bowlers and hence the vaunted battle between bat and ball is null and void. Add in this spectacle in the sunshine is being played out in front of 400, maybe 500 spectators (and a large contingent from England boosting the crowd number) this isn’t a good look for Test Match cricket.
I LOVE watching Joe Root bat as I’m a 52 year old childish teenage cricket fan. But this doesn’t do the grand old game any favours.
Act Two: More records tumble as Pakistan wilt in the searing heat
Although both Joe Root and Harry Brook succumbed in the afternoon session of play, and due more to heat exhaustion than anything else, the records they set both individually and as a team in their wake were remarkable, astonishing, and in the very highest echelon this grand old game has ever seen:
Their 454 run partnership smashed the previous best of Peter May and Colin Cowdrey in the West Indies that had stood for 67 years.
Root’s 262 is his highest ever Test Match score and although trapped “plumb” in front of his stumps in this strangely alluring lexicon of the game, he received the handshakes of every Pakistan player as he trudged slowly and thoroughly exhausted back to the pavilion.
Brook immediately went on the attack after the resumption in play, reaching his 250 from 280 balls before taking just 30 further deliveries to notch an almost run-a-ball triple century. An almost a run-a-ball triple century! This truly bears repeating. As does his eventual 317 being the 5th all time top score made by an Englishman in the entirety of the history of this storied game.
At least four team records are well worthy of note too:
England’s final total of 823–7 declared is both the highest score by a visiting team recorded in Pakistan (beating India’s 20 year record), the highest Test Match score ever recorded in Pakistan too, only the fourth time in the history of the game that a team has scored 800+ runs and England’s third highest ever Test Match score.
With a licence to chase quick runs, Jamie Smith crashed a quick 31, Chris Woakes 17, but with time being of the essence to force a positive result stand-in skipper Ollie Pope surprised no-one by declaring the innings closed with 20 minutes remaining in the session, and Chris Woakes, and indeed Pakistan skipper Shan Masood, took centre stage. Woakes’ very first delivery of the home team’s 2nd innings didn’t particularly bounce, sending Abdullah Shafique’s off stump cartwheeling out of the ground, before Shan Masood received not one but two cricketing “lives” and Chris Woakes was central to both. Shan was 7 not out on both occasions as first Gus Atkinson forced a false shot that ballooned into and out of the hands of a leaping Chris Woakes before with an almost identical shot mere deliveries later, Gus Atkinson returned the favour as well as replicating the leaping attempt at a catch from the bowling of Chris Woakes, only to see the ball dropping out of his grasp and onto the Multan grass.
Pakistan ended the session 23–1, 244 runs behind, and after largely dominating the opening 2 days of this Test Match are now staring defeat full in the face unless their skipper, and ace batsman Babar Azam, can guide their team to the end of the day unscathed and bat all day tomorrow for a draw.
There is only one possible winner in this Test Match now.
Act Three: “It’s almost as though they’ve changed the wicket between innings”
So joked ex England captain David Gower on TV co-commentary duties but I doubt Pakistan skipper Shan Masood enjoyed the good-natured observation. The captain’s dismissal just 6 runs into the third and final session of the day signalled a calamity filled collapse so out of place in this Test Match hence far but quixotically, so in keeping with his team’s appalling run of recent form. Without a win on home soil since 2021 and with many carrying the ghosts of the 3–0 whitewash inflicted by England in 2022, Pakistan quickly and pitifully slumped from 29–1 to 82–6 and with Abrar Ahmed seriously ill in hospital and not expected to return to the game, England needed just 3 wickets to turn their hosts dominance of days 1 and 2 into a quite frankly and faintly ridiculous innings victory by the end of the day’s play. That they didn’t is to the credit of 1st innings century maker Salman Ali Agha (41 not out) and Aamir Jamal (27 not out). Jamal received a “life” late in the day when dropped on the boundary edge by a juggling Shoaib Bashir and the easiest of the four catches put down by an otherwise impressive all round England unit. Salman has 145 total runs to his name across the Test Match and without both stints with the bat Pakistan would’ve already sunk without trace. A sobering thought considering they posted over 550 runs in the 1st innings. But the collapse started as soon as Chris Woakes ripped Abdullah Shafique’s off stump clean from the ground with the first delivery of the innings before skipper Shan tamely dunked a simple catch into the grateful hands of Zak Crawley close in. Babar Azam only troubled the scorers with 5 runs before being brilliantly turned around by a Gus Atkinson delivery he edged through to Jamie Smith behind the stumps, Saim Ayub played an “ordinary shot” according to both Nasser Hussain and Ramiz Raja on TV co-commentary, Mohammad Rizwan played back timidly to a ball from Brydon Carse he should have been forward to (Carse’s delivery crashing into the top of his middle stump) and Saud Shakeel showed some steely determination and resistance until the “Mad Professor” Jack Leach bowled a slightly quicker ball he could only edge into the gloves of Jamie Smith for a sharp, well taken catch.
At 82–6 and well over an hour’s play still remaining it seemed this Test Match would be over this evening. Barring a miracle or the unthinkable, this match will be over before the Lunch Break tomorrow and England, so long without a win in Pakistan, will have won 4 Test Matches in a row and I can only foresee them winning all 3 matches on this current tour.
See you tomorrow!
"Ashes to Ashes" - link to Amazon
"The Spirit of Cricket" - link to Amazon
"Tea and Biscuits in India" - link to Amazon
Thanks for reading. I hope this message in a bottle in The Matrix finds you well, prospering, and the right way up in an upside down world.