Pakistan England Test Series
Second Test Played at Ageas Bowl Southampton (Aug 13-17, 2020)
Brief Score
Pakistan 1st Innings 236 All Out in 91.2 Overs (, Mohammad Rizwan72, Abid Ali 60, Mohammad Rizwan 60*, Babar Azam 47, Azhar Ali 20, James Anderson 3/60Stuart Broad 4/56 SM Curran 1/44, CR Woakes 1/55)
England 1st Innings 110/4 in 43.1 Overs ( Z Crawley 53, DP Sibley 32, Mohammad Abbas 2/28, Shahin Shah 1/25, Yasir Shah 1/28)
Match: Drawn. Play Possible for 134.3 Overs out of 450
Pakistan Won the Toss and Elected to Bat
Rain and inclement weather forcing only 134.3 overs of 450 allotted overs over five days possible led to rain becoming ultimate winner.
After rain and lack of light reducing first two days play to half of its allotted overs the third day was completely rained out. Pakistan was stuck at 223/9 on a wicket seaming and swinging prodigiously under heavy overcast sky. The wicket also developed uneven bounce.
English bowlers used to bowling in such condition kept Pakistan under tight leash though AbidAli, Babar Azam and Mohammad Rizwan applying their skills kept Pakistan in the contest. The third days play was completely rained out. On the fourth morning Pakistan managed reaching 232 all out threw a major challenge to England to survive the very potent four-prong Pakistan attack. Shahin Afridi, Abbas, Nasim and Yasir really were relishing to kick on.
Experts believed that Pakistan had a more than even chance of pressing England on a juicy surface. In the very first ball of the first over Shahin could have had Burns caught at slip by AsadShafique had not the nick dropped a little short of him. But got him in the same over in the sam manner. Crawley joining Shibley had to survive a very testing 5 overs spell of Shahin and Afridi when rain wrote off the days play.
Heavy overnight rain, kept players guessing on the day five. But by that time the test became of academic interest only. When play resumed Crawley and Sibley managed staving off Shahin Abbas and Nasim with a stubborn 91 runs second wicket partnership before Abbas striking double blows reduced England to 92/3. Root and Pope were together. Yasir introduced in the attack won his personal battle against Pope trapping him LBW. But by then it was too little too late. England reached 110/4 before two captains agreed to call it a day. Another weather impacted test match petered out to a tame draw. England remaining unscratched need only avoiding a defeat in the last test to be played on the same venue from Friday 21 August for winning the series.
On a wicket and condition where it could be a pulsating nerve wrecking contest of ball and bat perhaps a little bit of imagination could make possible at least 40-50 more overs play if bad light lower limits could be adjusted a little serving interest of both teams and play could be started half an hour earlier on days having good conditions in the morning. NaserHossain, Michael Artherton, Shane Warne and Michael Holding all bitterly criticized very conservative interpretation of the rain rule.
The genuine cricket admirers’ all over the cricket world were hungry for watching very thrilling contest. Very talented Pakistan bowling attack on helpfully condition could take stern test of English batting. It was shaping to be a tooth and nail contest. But for lack of imagination it died a dull death. Hope the very intriguing third test on the same venue would not suffer from same weather interference.
BDST: 1118 HRS, AUG 18, 2020
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