MULTAN: Pakistan spinner Sajid Khan took three wickets in the space of 10 deliveries including centurion Ben Duckett to leave the second Test evenly-poised on an enthralling second day on Wednesday.

Replying to Pakistan’s first-innings 366, England cruised to 211-2 before Sajid (4-86) triggered a spectacular collapse on a turning pitch in the final session, getting the big wickets of Joe Root (34), Duckett (114) and Harry Brook (nine).

From the other end, fellow spinner Noman Ali (2-75) dismissed England skipper Ben Stokes for one as a suddenly rattled England lost four wickets in the space of 14 runs.

England limped to 239-6 at stumps, still 127 behind with Jamie Smith (12) and Brydon Carse (two) at the crease.

With the Multan pitch — which was also used for the first Test — offering sharp spin, the home team will be looking for a lead in the first innings for a series-levelling win.

England lead the three-match series 1-0 following their innings and 47 run win in the first Test.

Sajid bowled first Test triple century-maker Brook with a sharp turning delivery while Root — who smashed 262 in the last match — was bowled off an inside edge while sweeping as Pakistan sliced the strong England batting lineup with its spinners, who haven’t played first-class cricket for the last nine months.

“I watched the first Test at home on television,” said Sajid, one of four Pakistan changes as they went with a spin-heavy attack. “I noted Brook plays on the back foot so I bowled with a plan and got him out. Root is one of the best batters in the world so both these wickets are precious, but the job is not complete and we need 14 more wickets to win the Test.”

Before England’s slide it was opener Duckett who dominated with his fourth Test century.

“I’ve felt in good form for the past year and sat there and spoken about wanting to score hundreds, nice to get over the line,” said Duckett. “That fourth innings is going to be tricky and the pitch is going to continue to get worse.”

Duckett scored aggressively, forging 50-plus partnerships with Zak Crawley, Ollie Pope and Root.

The feisty left-hander combined in a breezy 73-run opening stand with Crawley, who led a charmed life before falling for 27.

Crawley survived a run-out after a mix-up with Duckett only because bowler Sajid Khan had broken the stumps before he could collect the ball.

Sajid suffered more disappointment when Crawley was adjudged lbw in his next over but the decision was reversed after replays confirmed the ball would have missed the stumps.

Crawley could not make the most of the reprieves, though, and fell to Noman. After a caught-behind appeal against Crawley had been turned down, left-arm spinner Noman cajoled his captain Shan Masood to review the decision and replays confirmed an edge.

Pope (29) made a start too before he was bowled through the gate by Sajid.

With Pakistan unleashing spin from both ends, Duckett found the sweep shot — both traditional and reverse — particularly productive and brought up his century off 120 deliveries, having completed his half-century off 47 balls, with one such shot against spinner Salman Ali Agha.

Root, the world’s top-ranked test batsman, added 86 runs with Duckett but fluffed a sweep shot against Sajid and dragged the ball onto his stumps and then Duckett edged the off-spinner to Salman at slip after the ball had spun enough from the rough.

“In the beginning, I leaked some runs, but I stuck to my method, and eventually, I got the results,” explained Sajid.

Five balls later, Brook paid the price of exposing his stumps to Sajid’s length ball and got clean bowled as Pakistan sliced the strong England batting lineup with with Stokes, returning to Test cricket from a torn hamstring, getting caught close to the wicket of Noman’s left-arm spin.

“In the third session, Pakistan really turned the game around,” he said. “It seems like the new ball caused more turns, and that made batting tougher for us. But ee will try to take the innings as deep as possible tomorrow.”

Earlier, Pakistan’s lower order chipped in with useful runs after they resumed on 259-5.

Salman (31), Aamer Jamal (37) and Pakistan’s number 10 Noman (32) produced defiant cameos to take the hosts past the 350-mark.

Jack Leach grabbed 4-114 and fast bowlers Carse (3-50) and Matthew Potts (2-66) shared five wickets in between them before Pakistan were dismissed shortly after lunch.

Pakistan lost the overnight pair of Mohammad Rizwan (41) and Salman before Aamer, who received treatment on his hip while batting, chipped away by adding 49 runs with Noman.

Rizwan’s scrappy knock ended in the third over of the day when Jamie Smith made a spectacular diving catch as Carse squared up the batter with his pace before Potts brought an end to Salman’s lively knock.

But Aamer and Noman defied England in the latter half of the first session but from 358-8 at lunch, Aamer was dismissed off the very first ball after the interval, bowled by Carse.

Spinner Leach ended Noman’s knock by having him caught in the deep by Carse.

Scoreboard

PAKISTAN (1st Innings, overnight 259-5):

Abdullah Shafique b Leach 7

Saim Ayub c Stokes b Potts 77

Shan Masood c Crawley b Leach 3

Kamran Ghulam b Bashir 118

Saud Shakeel c Smith b Carse 4

Mohammad Rizwan c Smith b Carse 41

Salman Ali Agha c Smith b Potts 31

Aamer Jamal b Carse 37

Sajid Khan c Root b Leach 2

Noman Ali c Carse b Leach 32

Zahid Mehmood not out 2

EXTRAS (B-4, LB-3, NB-2, W-3) 12

TOTAL (all out, 123.3 overs) 366

FALL OF WICKETS: 1-15 (Abdullah), 2-19 (Shan), 3-168 (Saim), 4-178 (Saud), 5-243 (Kamran), 6-264 (Rizwan), 7-302 (Salman), 8-309 (Sajid), 9-358 (Aamer)

BOWLING: Potts 26-9-66-2, Carse 20-6-50-3 (3w, 2nb), Leach 38.3-2-114-4, Bashir 28-1-85-1, Root 6-0-24-0, Stokes 5-0-20-0

ENGLAND (1st Innings):

Z. Crawley c Rizwan b Noman 27

B. Duckett c Salman b Sajid 114

O. Pope b Sajid 29

J. Root b Sajid 34

H. Brook b Sajid 9

B. Stokes c Abdullah b Noman 1

J. Smith not out 12

B. Carse not out 2

EXTRAS (B-7, NB-4) 11

TOTAL (for six wkts, 53 overs) 239

FALL OF WICKETS: 1-73 (Crawley), 2-125 (Pope), 3-211 (Root), 4-224 (Duckett), 5-225 (Brook), 6-225 (Stokes)

STILL TO BAT: M. Potts, J. Leach, S. Bashir

BOWLING: Aamer 6-0-39-0 (3nb), Sajid 19-1-86-4, Noman 21-4-75-2 (1nb), Zahid 6-0-27-0, Salman 1-0-5-0

Published in Dawn, October 17th, 2024