Pakistan sealed their first home Test win in nearly four years as they beat England by 152 runs in the second match in Multan on Friday, levelling the three-game series and vanquishing last week’s crushing defeat.

The victory also ended an 11-Test winless streak in home matches stretching back to February 2021, and was secured before lunch on the fourth day as England lost eight wickets in the session to be bowled out for 144 while in pursuit of 297.

Pakistan off-spinner Noman Ali broke both his best bowling figures, with 8-46 in the second innings, including the last seven to fall, which completed match figures of 11-47. It was also the first time that Pakistan spinners picked up all 20 wickets to fall in a match, with Sajid Khan claiming 9-204.

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

“The first one is always special and it’s come after some hard and rough times,” Pakistan captain Shan Masood, whose position was under growing pressure, reflected on his first Test win.

The humbling defeat by an innings and 47 runs for Pakistan only a week ago in Multan led to four changes being made for this match. The controversial omission of star batter, Babar Azam, and key seam bowler Shaheen Shah Afridi were most notable as the hosts elected to deploy seven spinners on the used surface.

“We tried going for green seamer (surfaces) against Bangladesh and we were a bit off. The only other Test we played in Multan was two years ago and it offered some spin so we tried something different,” Masood said of the decision to start this match on the exact same track only three days after the end of the first game of the series ended – also regarded as a first as far back as any can find in the history books.

“For the boys to step in after last week, stick together to pick up 20 wickets was the most satisfying thing,” Masood added. “You have to applaud the group – they have been hungry, you can’t doubt the effort or commitment.”

England resumed the day on 36-2, but quickly lost Ollie Pope to a caught-and-bowled by Sajid for 22 runs. It was the first of four wickets to fall for 51 runs, which left the tourists in a perilous position that even captain Ben Stokes’s 37 – the highest score of the innings – could not reverse.

Source: Al Jazeera 

BDST: 1326 HRS, OCT 19, 2024
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