On 3rd day of the 1st test between England and Pakistan, the Pakistani spearhead in the longest format of the game, Mohammad Abbas tried to stop the boundary after having chased the ball all the way from mid-on only to allow the ball to go pass the boundary line.
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After having posted a healthy first innings total of 326 at the back of a brilliant hundred from their opener Shan Masood, Pakistan’ fast bowlers breathed fire and got rid off the stubborn openers in Dom Sibley and Rory Burns with some brilliant balls.
During the 48th over of the England’s batting innings, Chris Woakes pushed the ball down the ground and the bowler himself in Shaheen Afridi was sloppy as he couldn’t stop the ball fully which ricocheted from his fingers and increased its pace. The ball was raising towards the boundary and Mohammad Abbas who was chasing the ball couldn’t stop the eventual boundary.
England were hoping for a big partnership from their two overnight batsmen in Jos Buttler and Ollie Pope to rescue them from a precarious situation but the Pakistan pace trio of Shaheen Afridi, Mohammad Abbas and Naseem Shah were impeccable with their line and length and didn’t allowed the 2 attacking batsmen to score freely.
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England lost their backbone of their batting line up in Ben Stokes for a duck who got an absolute jaffa from Mohammad Abbas which 9 out of 10 batsmen would have got out to. Once Ben Stokes was dismissed, Pakistan had a great chance to wrap up the whole of England’s batting line-up as they have a long tail with Chris Woakes coming in at #7.
England are struggling at the moment as they have only 4 wickets in hand with another 167 runs in front of them which is a huge ask as of now. England will hope for some magical performance from their tail to take them near to Pakistan’s first innings total.
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