In just over three days, Pakistan won by 152 runs, their first victory at home since beating South Africa in Rawalpindi in February 2021.
A team that was reeling from a 2-0 home whitewash against Bangladesh saw some of the gloom lifted by their first victory under Shan Masood’s captaincy.
According to Shan, “The first one (win) for me and long-awaited for the team is always special.” This comes after some difficult times, and the boys stepped in after a lot happened this week.
The skipper, who like his group had been under savage strain in cricket-frantic Pakistan, added: ” We devised a plan to acquire twenty wickets and succeeded. We never feared taking chances. Hunger is created by three years and eleven months, so it’s good to win at home.”
After England defeated them by an innings in the series opener in Multan, Pakistan’s selectors made bold decisions that made it possible.
Pakistan took the drastic action of dropping batter Babar Azam and pacers Naseem Shah and Shaheen Afridi, who had been off-color recently, following the shellacking.
The move paid off, to their relief.
Supplanting Babar, Kamran Ghulam dazzled quickly crushing a fabulous hundred in the main innings of his presentation Test.
Shan said of Kamran, who was trolled on social media following his selection, “It’s never easy when you’re replacing one of the best batters in the world.”
Before he played his first Test match, I read some horrible things. I have no idea how much stress someone might be under. But we were all behind him, and I think he seemed to belong from the beginning.
On the twisting surface at the Multan Cricket Stadium, Pakistan’s strategy of using a spin-heavy attack with Aamer Jamal as the only seam option also paid off.
Sajid Khan, an offspinner, and Noman Ali, a left-arm spinner, shared all 20 England wickets in a fantastic spin bowling performance on a accommodating surface.
Just six different teams have at any point done that in Test cricket, with Australians Dennis Lillee and Bounce Massie the last to do as such at Master’s in 1972. The last spinners to do so were Britain’s Jim Laker and Tony Lock in 1956.
Noman got 8-46 to get done with a match take of 11 wickets and Sajid Khan took 2-93 to go with his 7-111 in the main innings as the pair wrapped up Britain’s second innings for 144 after the guests were set an overwhelming objective of 297, bowling so well that Shan didn’t utilize a third bowler.
