Pakistan dominate England in the Second Test- England vs Pakistan, Test 1, Day 2
Pakistan started the day on 139-2 and would look to build on the platform that they had built on the first day.
England got the breakthrough that they desperately needed. Anderson with a full-length delivery enticed danger man Babar Azan into a drive. Azam edged the ball straight to England captain Joe Root in the slip cordon. Azam fell for 69.
This was a vital wicket for England as Azam had the potential to take the game away from England and he would’ve been the number one priority when they took the field on day 2.
England soon got their second wicket of the day and the session. After a couple of unsuccessful appeals, Broad struck and claimed his first wicket of the Test. A full ball from Broad found the outside edge of new batsman Shafiq Asad with the ball being safely caught by Stokes.
The England bowling attack restricted the run rate of the batsman and made it very difficult to score. All the while putting the batsman under pressure.
This pressure soon paid off. Chris Woakes found the outside edge of Rizwan’s bat and the ball was feathered through to Buttler. Rizwan looked erratic in his batting and eventually lost his wicket for 9.
England had bowled much better than they had yesterday, and the improved bowling had paid off as they were firmly in control of the second day.
The Pakistan pair of Shadab Khan and Masood developed a strong partnership. They began to take the game away from England after lunch. Masood got his well-deserved century. He played incredibly well. He was accompanied at the other end by Khan who was cleverly dictating strike taking quick singles and punishing bad balls.
Spinner Dom Bess was trying to incite the big shot from Khan and force a mistake. He did just that, Khan came down the wicket to Bess. Khan then hit the ball hit into the air and the catch was taken by Root. He departed for 46 and left Pakistan 281-6.
This was a much-needed wicket for England. The hosts had bowled poorly after lunch and Pakistan had built a very strong partnership; this wicket opened up an end that England could attack.
It didn’t take long for England to strike again. Jofra Archer was into the attack and trapped Shah on the crease and his pads. Shah was given out for 5.
Archer then got his second in two balls. A full ball saw Abbas edged the ball to the slip cordon and he was out for a duck. These two quick wickets reduced Pakistan to 291-8.
After a brief onslaught from Masood Khan, England were back in the wickets column and it was the centurion Masood who was eventually out. Broad hit him on the pads and got him out lbw for 156. A fantastic innings came to end with Pakistan on 317-9.
The Pakistan innings soon came to an end. Shah gloved a ball from Broad and was caught by Buttler. Pakistan’s innings ended on 326 all out. An innings set up superbly by Masood and Azam.
England then came to the crease to begin their first innings. Burns was given out for lbw for 4 off a delivery Afridi. The ball crashed into his pads and the opener was dismissed in the first over of the innings.
The Pakistan bowling attack were firmly on top and putting the England batting line-up under close examination. Root was struck on the pads numerous times and required a review in order to survive.
The innings got worse for England when Dom Sibley was given out lbw off the bowling of Abbas.
Vice-captain Ben Stokes then joined captain Joe Root at the crease. England needed their two best batsmen to survive this early onslaught and bat out the remainder of the day. This did not happen. Ben Stokes was bowled by a brilliant delivery from Abbas. Late movement took the ball away from Stokes and hit his off stump.
England were in serious trouble and needed some stability and luck in their first innings.
Pope and Root then stabilised the England innings. Pope in particular played well. His defence was solid, and he put away the bad balls. He and Root looked solid at the crease and were fending off the Pakistan bowling attack that looked threatening throughout the later stages of the evening session.
Root soon fell. He tried to cut the spinner and was caught behind. The England captain fell for 14. The loss of this wicket placed England under massive amounts of pressure.
Pope and Buttler survived till the end of play on day 2. They finished the day on 92-4 with Pope on 46. England will have a mountain to climb if they are to surpass and even get close to the total that the visitors set in their first innings.
Pakistan dominated England on the second day of the Test. They battled back after quick early wickets and managed to battle to an impressive 326. Masood was pivotal to this innings; he was the glue that stuck the Pakistan innings together. He then kicked it up a gear in the final stages to take the game away from England.
The visitors then took very important early wickets that saw England struggling to stabilise their innings. The hosts will have to battle in order to get onto stable footing and will face a battle if they were to progress in their innings.
Pakistan placed themselves in firm control of the Test.
