- Pakistan’s decision to play for a ninth day on the same pitch paid off for them
- England will have to win the series in Rawalpindi after a crushing 152-run loss
England slumped to a crushing 152-run defeat against Pakistan’s spinners on the fourth morning of the second Test, setting up a potentially thrilling decider next week in Rawalpindi.
Resuming on 36 for two in pursuit of an unlikely 297 for victory, they lost Ollie Pope to the eighth ball of the day, and never threatened to pull off what would have been a remarkable chase on a pitch in its ninth day of use.
Ben Stokes made liberal use of the reverse-sweep while wickets fell around him, but his 37 was the top score in a total of 144. And his dismissal summed up England’s haplessness: advancing at left-arm spinner Noman Ali, he swung with such force that his bat flew high behind square leg even as Mohammad Rizwan completed a simple stumping.
That left England 125 for seven going into the mid-morning drinks break, but the respite proved fleeting. If the pitch in Rawalpindi is anything other than an old-fashioned bunsen burner, it will come as a major surprise.
It all meant Sajid Khan and Ali, who took seven of the eight wickets to fall this morning, became the first pair of bowlers to share all 20 in a Test since Australian quicks Bob Massie and Dennis Lillee at Lord’s in 1972 – and the first spinners since Jim Laker took 19 (and Tony Lock one) against Australia at Old Trafford in 1956.
England were beaten by 152 runs by Pakistan as the hosts levelled the series in Multan
Pakistan spun England out to win the second Test and set up a decider in Rawalpindi
England’s chances going into the fourth day were already slim to none on a surface that has helped the slow bowlers from the second evening, and any optimism harboured by their small group of supporters at the Multan International Stadium evaporated almost instantly in the morning heat.
Pope drove the second ball of the second over back to Sajid, who celebrated with his trademark jig, borrowed from the Asian sport of kabaddi.
Three overs later, Joe Root missed a sweep at Noman, and was a touch unlucky to be given leg-before by Chris Gaffaney for 18: DRS showed up the faintest of impacts in line with off stump, and England were 55 for four.
Harry Brook was next to go, leg-before to Noman for 16 as he went back to pull a ball that stayed slightly low and, according to the technology, would have hit leg stump. Regal on a flat one in the first Test, when he made 317, he has not been the only England batsman to struggle in the second.
And it was 88 for six when Jamie Smith’s attempted heave settled in the hands of Shan Masood at mid-on.
Stokes briefly flourished with a series of horizontal-bat shots, while Brydon Carse hammered Sajid for three sixes, including two in succession down the ground.
But when he edged Noman to slip for 27, giving the left-arm spinner his sixth wicket, the end was nigh. Jack Leach was caught at short leg off Noman’s slower one, and it was all over at 11.43am when Shoaib Bashir followed suit first ball.
England were left chasing 297 for victory but never came close to pulling it off
This was the pitch’s ninth day of use and Pakistan’s gamble on it paid off handsomely
Noman’s figures of eight for 46 were the fifth-best in Pakistan’s Test history, and the second-best against England, behind Abdul Qadir’s nine for 56 at Lahore in 1987-88.
England will tell themselves they faced a near-impossible task from the moment Stokes called wrongly at the toss, but this was a hammering in anyone’s language.