PAK vs ENG | Shakeel ton, tailender cameos, and late English wickets give Pakistan ascendancy on Day 2

SportsCafe Desk

BySportsCafe Desk, SportsCafe Editor

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England ran out of fumes on Day 2 in Rawalpindi as they allowed Pakistan to recover from 177/7 to 344 all-out, thereby conceding a first innings lead of 77 runs. Saud Shakeel orchestrated the comeback with a ton while Sajid Khan and Noman Ali made handy contributions with both bat and ball.

Brief score: ENG 267 & 24/3 (Duckett 12, Root 5*; Noman 2/9) trail PAK 344 (Shakeel 134, Sajid 48*; Rehan 4/66) by 53 runs

Pakistan skipper Shan Masood added 10 runs to his overnight score of 16, as Pakistan sought to build upon their previous evening's tally of 76/3, but could not last past the hour mark on Day 2 as he poked a Shoaib Bashir delivery to Ollie Pope at second slip. Mohammad Rizwan and Saud Shakeel took over the onus thereafter to stabilize proceedings but the promise was once again short-lived when the former was trapped in front by Rehan Ahmed for 25 to end the 52-run stand. The wrist-spinner went on a role thereafter, dispatching both Salman Agha and Aamer Jamal in the same spell to leave Pakistan reeling at 187/7 heading into Lunch.

Upon resumption, Saud Shakeel, who had been watching wickets tumble from the other end, finally found some reliable company in Noman Ali as the duo patiently played out the English while gradually keeping the scorecard ticking. They stitched together a 78-run stand in as many as 25 overs, with Shakeel bringing up his fourth Test ton in the process, until Noman finally succumbed to Bashir two short of a second Test fifty. Nevertheless, with parity restored to England's first innings haul of 267, Sajid Khan went gung ho in a brilliant counterattacking display featruing four maximums and two boundaries. However, much like his spin twin, Sajid too was stranded on 48 after Saud and Zahid Mahmood fell within the space of five dleiveries to bring an end to Pakistan's first dig with the bat.

England thus found themselves with potentially 14 overs to contend until Stumps with the deficit 77. Ben Duckett tried to stamp his authority early with consecutive boundaries off Sajid in the third over but things went haywire quickly when the opener was deceived by a change in pace from Sajid and fell LBW, five balls before Noman Ali trapped his fellow opener Zak Crawley with an arm ball. The veteran spinner proceeded to add a cherry on top by having Ollie Pope caught at slip in the penultimate over of the day as bad light stopped play after nine overs, the score reading a dismal 24/3 at Stumps with Pakistan's lead still a hefty 53 runs.

They are back

At its best

Phenomenal

Bloody day

Trouble makers

Enough

Two man army

Well deserved

Pure allrounder

Rage

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