MULTAN: England’s bowlers sparked a Pakistan batting collapse after a brilliant triple century by Harry Brook and Joe Root’s double hundred had them closing in on victory in the first Test in Multan on Thursday.

The visitors notched up their highest total in 86 years, declaring on 823-7 before Pakistan collapsed to a perilous position.

Their top order failed to get going in the second innings and the hosts ended day four on 152-6, with Salman Ali Agha unbeaten on 41 and Aamer Jamal on 27 not out. The pair added a fighting 70 for the seventh wicket, with the home team still needing 115 runs to avoid an innings defeat.

Pakistan’s collapse marked a quick turnaround to the match after a flat Multan stadium pitch saw 1,379 runs scored for the loss of just 17 wickets.

Brook and Root earlier put on 454 for the fourth wicket as England piled up the fourth-highest total in Test cricket history.

It was England’s highest in Tests, eclipsing the 411-run fourth-wicket partnership by Peter May and Colin Cowdrey against the West Indies at Birmingham in 1957.

“There’s very much a chance of a result in this game. We’ve got still got a lot of hard work to do but off the back of the way that we’ve played so far in this test match, we’ve got a real opportunity tomorrow if we get things right,” Root said.

With England leading by 267, Chris Woakes steamed in and took a wicket off the first ball as a fatigued Abdullah Shafique, who had been on the field for 150 overs, played a tired shot as the fast bowler rattled his off stump.

Gus Atkinson then got in on the act with the wickets of skipper Shan Masood and Babar Azam, whose poor form continued with the batsman not having scored a fifty in nine Tests.

Brydon Carse also dismissed Saim Ayub with his first ball when the set batter played a poor shot for a catch before the debutant cleaned up Mohammad Rizwan with a delivery that nipped back in to leave Pakistan reeling at 59-5.

Saud Shakeel was caught behind off Jack Leach before Salman and Aamer stitched their unbeaten stand.

Resuming on 492-3, England went past Pakistan’s 556 to build a handy first innings lead of 267 runs thanks to Brook’s 317 after Root’s 262 as they ground the tired hosts to dust on another hot day.

“It was wonderful batting with Rooty,” said Brook. “We spoke about the game moving forward and going out there after lunch to try and put the foot down and get a decent lead.

“It makes you feel so comfortable when you’re watching him at the other end, he makes the game look so easy, and he’s playing the ball so late and making the balls look slow.”

Root eventually departed lbw during the second session to one that kept low from Salman.

Brook, however, moved through the gears to score the second-fastest triple ton of all time in 310 balls and he became the sixth Englishman to achieve the milestone.

He is also England’s first triple centurion in 34 years. Six bowlers conceded more than 100 runs for only the second time in Test history.

The record-breaking partnership also marked only the third time two players scored more than 250 in a Test innings.

Brook’s marathon innings finally ended when a miscued sweep off Saim went straight to Shan.

Root, who eclipsed Alastair Cook as England’s top Test run-scorer on Wednesday, picked up from where he left off and became the first batsman from his country to make 20,000 international runs in the morning session with a driven boundary.

The former captain was dropped on 186 and he made the most of it to reach his sixth double century with a single before celebrating by kissing the badge on his helmet.

In reaching the milestone, Root went past Cook again with only Wally Hammond ahead of him in England’s list with seven double tons.

Brook then became the latest member of the club to delight the visiting fans, who were then cheering when Root eased to his 250 with a scooped boundary in the same over bowled by Naseem Shah.

Replays showed that the ball had struck the flap of Root’s back pad but the 33-year-old did not complain and went on to better his previous best of 254 before he went shortly after lunch.

Pakistan’s high-performance coach Tim Nielsen rued the side’s inability to maintain its dominance over the full course of the Test match.“.. we haven’t played our best cricket for long enough over five days,” he observed. “The team that plays consistently and efficiently for the longest usually wins.

“We’ve made crucial mistakes in batting, bowling, and fielding in all three games, which we couldn’t recover from.

“Our best cricket is competitive, but there’s a big gap between our best and the rest. We need to close that gap to play closer to our best more often.”

Pakistan were without frontline spinner Abrar Ahmed, who suffered a fever and did not take the field on Thursday.

Scoreboard

PAKISTAN (1st Innings) 556 (Shan Masood 151, Salman Ali Agha 104 not out; Jack Leach 3-160) ENGLAND (1st Innings, overnight 492-3): Z. Crawley c Aamer b Shaheen78 O. Pope c Aamer b Naseem0 J. Root lbw b Salman262 B. Duckett lbw b Aamer84 H. Brook c Shan b Saim317 J. Smith c Aamer b Naseem31 C. Woakes not out17 G. Atkinson c Babar b Saim2 B. Carse not out9 EXTRAS (B-8, LB-5, NB-7, W-3)23 TOTAL (for seven wickets decl, 150 overs)823 FALL OF WICKETS: 1-4 (Pope), 2-113 (Crawley), 3-249 (Duckett), 4-703 (Root), 5-779 (Smith), 6-797 (Brook), 7-799 (Atkinson) DID NOT BAT: J. Leach, S. Bashir BOWLING: Shaheen 26-1-120-1, Naseem 31-0-157-2 (2nb, Abrar 35-0-174-0 (2nb), Aamer 24-0-126-1 (1w, 3nb), Salman 18-0-118-1 (2w), Saim 14-0-101-2, Saud 2-0-14-0 PAKISTAN (2nd Innings): Abdullah Shafique b Woakes0 Saim Ayub c Duckett b Carse25 Shan Masood c Crawley b Atkinson11 Babar Azam c Smith b Atkinson5 Saud Shakeel c Smith b Leach29 Mohammad Rizwan b Carse10 Salman Ali Agha not out41 Aamer Jamal not out27 EXTRAS (B-4)4 TOTAL (for six wickets, 37 overs)152 FALL OF WICKETS: 1-0 (Abdullah), 2-29 (Shan), 3-41 (Babar) , 4-41 (Saim), 5-59 (Rizwan), 6-82 (Saud) STILL TO BAT: Shaheen Shah Afridi, Naseem Shah, Abrar Ahmed BOWLING: Woakes 8-1-29-1, Atkinson 10-2-28-2, Bashir 6-0-32-0, Carse 10-1-39-2, Leach 3-0-20-1

Published in Dawn, October 11th, 2024