Pakistan spinners take all 20 wickets in England to level Test series | Cricket news

Pakistan beat England by 152 runs to level the series at three on Day Four of the second Test in Multan.

Pakistan won their first Test at home in nearly four years as they beat England by 152 runs in the second match in Multan on Friday, leveling the three-match series and overcoming last week’s defeat.

The victory also ended an 11-Test home winless streak dating back to February 2021, and was achieved before lunch on day four as England lost eight wickets in the session to be bowled out for 144 while chasing 297.

Pakistani pacer Noman Ali broke both of his best bowling figures, taking 8-46 in the second innings, including the last seven off, which finished the match at 11-47. It was also the first time that Pakistan’s spinners had taken all 20 wickets to fall in a match, with Sajid Khan taking 9-204.

If Khan, who was bowling at the other end when the last wicket fell, had taken one more wicket, it would have been the first time in the history of Test cricket that two bowlers had taken 10 wickets in the same match. It was also Pakistan’s first Test win, home or away, in nearly four years and came only a month after a humiliating 2-0 home series defeat by Bangladesh.

“The first one is always special and comes after difficult and difficult times,” Pakistan captain Shan Masood, whose position was under increasing pressure, reflected on his first Test win.

Pakistan’s abandonment of Babar and Shaheen was rewarded?

A humiliating defeat by an innings and just 47 runs to Pakistan last week in Multan led to four changes being made in the match. The controversial omission of star batsman Babar Azam and key seam bowler Shaheen Shah Afridi stood out as the hosts opted to field seven spinners in the used venue.

“We tried to play the green seamer (in the face) against Bangladesh and then we came out a little bit. The only Test we played was in Multan two years ago and it gave us spin so we tried something different,” Masood said of the decision to start the match at the same track just three days after the first match of the series ended – and it’s considered as much a back-to-back as anyone can get in the books. of history.

“For the boys to come in after last week, to stick together to take 20 wickets was very satisfying,” added Masood. “You have to applaud the team – they’ve been hungry for a long time, you can’t doubt the effort and commitment.”

England resumed the day at 36-2, but soon lost Ollie Pope caught and bowled by Sajid for 22 runs. It was the first of four wickets for 51 runs, which left the visitors in such a dangerous position that even captain Ben Stokes’ 37 – the highest score in the innings – could not back down.

England unfazed by Pakistan ‘quirk’

Hitting a run-a-ball rate, Stokes came dancing down the track to Noman and flicked his bat to fly out of his hands and into mid-on. Pakistan goalkeeper Mohammad Rizwan had enough time to collect the ball and bail the England captain out of the crease.

“It’s going to be a big job for us because of how much was happening on the wicket,” Stokes told Sky Sports. “It was incredibly difficult situations to try and get that goal – you always felt there was a ball with your name on it.

“It was always in favor of whoever won the toss on the ‘Day Six’ pitch before the ball was bowled. We lost a lot of wickets at the end of Day Two and that’s when I felt the pitch started to react more.”

England coach Brendon McCullum went with Stokes’ thoughts that the visitors were always against him as they lost to be ridden in a place that always helped the fans, but he said that there are no hard feelings about the strategy of playing again in the same place.

“I don’t mind being bad or that. If you play at home you must have home advantage. I have no problem with it at all,” McCullum told Sky Sports. “I always find in Pakistan that the game gets faster as it goes on. This one was quick from off. It is always better when there is a battle between the bat and the ball.”

The final Test starts in Rawalpindi on October 24. Whether Pakistan remembers its two big names remains to be seen but there is life in Pakistan cricket again, and that would be a good thing for the world game, not just this series. .