Pakistan piled on the runs thanks to a century by Salman Ali Agha and a half-century by Saud Shakeel on Day 2 of the first Test against England in Multan. Their efforts were bolstered by the invaluable contributions of Naseem Shah and Shaheen Afridi with the bat as Pakistan scored 556 in the first innings. But England too scored at a rapid rate to end the day on 96 for 1 in 20 overs.
Salman brought up his 100 off just 108 balls, to applause all around the stadium, in the final session while adding a valuable partnership with Shaheen. Continuing on from the previous sessions, the duo had managed to comfortably rotate the strike post the Tea break, unperturbed on a pitch that offered nothing for the bowlers. They layed into left-arm spinner Jack Leach scoring two sixes off him. But Afridi, in an attempt to up the ante, with a slog sweep, was castled a few balls later by Leach.
Earlier during the day, Pakistan had approached play more conservatively. Naseem, the nightwatcher, stayed put in the middle for nearly an hour and a half in the morning as Shakeel picked up the runs. But the fast-bowler finally fell off a glance to fine-leg while Mohammed Rizwan followed soon after with a duck, caught at mid-off.
But Salman had other ideas post Lunch and he took the attack to England, smashing a couple of boundaries in the opening over after the break. He survived an attmept to clear the ropes few overs later, when Chris Woakes’ momentum took him over the boundary ropes after taking the catch. But England struck twice in quick succession soon after as Shakeel was dismissed for 82 and Jamal was trapped leg-before off Carse.
The dismissal of Afridi offered Pakistan a chance of declaration but they opted against it, having lost from a similar position to Bangladesh only recently. No. 11 batter Abrar Ahmed survived two chances in two overs. First, ‘keeper Jamie Smith missed a routine stumping chance while Gus Atkinson dropped him at mid-wicket. But Joe Root had his man an over later, as Abrar steered a quick short-ball to Ben Duckett at slip. In an attempt to take the catch, the ball hit Duckett on the top of his thumb immediately signalling to the dressing room that he was in pain.
As a result, there was a rejig in England’s batting order as Zak Crawley and skipper Ollie Pope walked out to bat. England, under the Bazball-era bat on this track, promised a lot and they didn’t as Crawley drove Afridi for four off the very first over. Pope nailed a pull off Naseem in the next over but Aamer Jamal took a one-handed stunner at mid-wicket to dismiss Pope for a duck.
The wicket made no difference to England’s intentions and they kept the scoreboard ticking with ones, twos and regular boundaries. They scored 11 runs off Abrar’s first over including two boundaries despite the spinner taking the edge of Crawley which was fell well wide of slip. The same thing happened in Abrar’s next over, this time off Root and the batters scampered for three as Root brought up 1000 Test runs in 2024.
Crawley continued to attack Abrar hitting him for two more boundaries in the 15th over. He repeated the feat again in the 18th over, this time off Naseem, as he brought up his 50 in the process. This was sandwiched by Joe Root almost chopping onto the stumps, off a ball which kept low by Afridi before stumps.
Brief Scores: Pakistan 556 (Shan Masood 151, Abdullah Shafique 102; Jack Leach 3-160) lead England 96/1 (Zak Crawley 64*, Joe Root 32*; Naseem Shah 1-29)
