England suffered a dramatic top-order collapse that noticed Ben Stokes out for a duck after Shan Masood’s sensible century established a robust place for Pakistan within the first Test at Old Trafford on Thursday. The hosts had been 92-Four at stumps on the second day, after slumping to 12-Three, in reply to Pakistan’s first innings 326 that featured opener Masood’s Check-best 156. Ollie Pope defied Pakistan to be 46 not out, with Jos Buttler unbeaten on 15. However England had been nonetheless 234 runs behind with no extra specialist batsmen left.
It took towering left-armer Shaheen Afridi simply 4 balls to have Rory Burns lbw earlier than Mohammad Abbas struck twice in fast succession.
Dom Sibley was plumb lbw earlier than the correct Abbas bowled Stokes, standing properly out of his floor, with an outstanding ball that clipped the highest of off-stump.
England had been now 12-Three, with the cheers of Pakistan’s reserve gamers on the lodge balconies overlooking the bottom making an attempt to compensate for the absence of their passionate followers in what’s a behind closed doorways collection due to the coronavirus.
Root falls
Joe Root, the England captain, and Pope stored Pakistan at bay with a stand of precisely 50.
However leg-spinner Yasir Shah then had Root, who made a struggling 14 off 58 balls, properly caught by wicketkeeper Mohammad Rizwan after the skipper edged an supposed lower.
The day began brilliantly for England when, with Thursday’s sixth ball, James Anderson had Babar Azam edging to first-slip Root for 69 with out Pakistan having then added to their in a single day 139.
However Masood pressed on to hitch a choose group of Pakistan batsmen who’ve scored a whole bunch in three successive Check innings.
The 30-year-old left-hander batted for practically eight hours in largely bowler-friendly circumstances to surpass his earlier Check-best of 135 in opposition to Sri Lanka in Karachi in December.
He obtained glorious assist from Shadab Khan (45) in a sixth-wicket stand of 105 as England had been run ragged after Pakistan had been struggling at 176-5.
Pakistan had managed simply 48 runs for the lack of three wickets in Thursday’s first session to succeed in 187-5 at lunch.
However with 5 overs till the brand new ball, Root then bowled his personal occasional off-breaks in tandem with frontline spinner Dom Bess instantly after the interval.
Masood and Shadab responded by including 27 runs with each batsmen properly set by the point England took the brand new ball.
There have been no nervous 90s for Masood, who had been reprieved twice on 45 by Buttler on Wednesday after the wicketkeeper dropped a catch and missed a stumping off the unlucky Bess.
Two late-cut boundaries off Stuart Broad took him to 96 earlier than Masood, who struggled throughout Pakistan’s 2016 tour of England, accomplished a 251-ball century, together with 13 fours.
In addition to being his fourth hundred in 21 Exams, and a primary in opposition to England, it was additionally Masood’s third in a row, after his century in opposition to Sri Lanka was adopted by 100 in opposition to Bangladesh in Rawalpindi in February.
Masood, educated in England, was the sixth Pakistan batsman to attain 100 in three consecutive Check innings after Zaheer Abbas, Mudassar Nazar, Mohammad Yousuf, Younis Khan — now Pakistan’s batting coach — and Misbah-ul-Haq.
All-rounder Shadab holed out off Bess with a mistimed slog to mid-on.
Quick bowler Jofra Archer then took two tail-end wickets with successive deliveries earlier than Afridi survived the hat-trick.
Masood, taking part in a textbook opener’s innings, upped the tempo by hoisting and driving Bess for 2 sixes.
Promoted
He finally fell lbw after tea to Broad, having confronted 319 balls, hitting 18 fours and two sixes.
Broad led England’s assault with Three-54 from 22.Three overs whereas Archer additionally took three wickets.
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