1st Test: Pakistan lose 4 quick wickets in second innings against England

171
1st Test: Pakistan lose 2 quick wickets in second innings against England

MULTAN: Pakistan have lost four early wickets in their second innings in the first Test being played in Multan.

Pakistan scored 41 for loss of four wicket. Opener Abdullah Shafiq got out for not while captain Shan Masood only managed to score 11 runs.

Earlier, England declared their first innings at a mammoth 823-7 before tea on the fourth day of the opening Test against Pakistan on Thursday for a lead of 267 runs.

Harry Brook notched up a superb 317 and Joe Root hit 262 as both batsmen made their highest Test scores on the flat wicket at the Multan Cricket Stadium.

The visitors’ mammoth 823-run total marks the second time in history that a team has scored more than 700 runs in a Test match against Pakistan.

Previously, the West Indies scored 790-3 against the Men in Green in 1958.

Earlier in the day, both Root and Brook propelled their side way past Pakistan’s 556-run total in the first innings with the former becoming the first English batter to make 20,000 international runs.

The former captain was handed a reprieve on 186 when Babar Azam dropped the simplest of catches at mid-wicket, and he made the most of it to reach his sixth double-century with a single before celebrating by kissing the badge on his helmet.

By scoring his sixth double ton, Root went past Cook again with only Wally Hammond ahead of him in England’s list with seven double centuries.

On Wednesday, he had surpassed Alastair Cook as England’s top Test run-scorer.

Following the innings declaration, the Shan Masood-led side had a rather unsettling start to the second innings with opener Abdullah Shafique (0) losing his wicket to Chris Woakes on the very first ball.

With captain Masood (10*) and opener Saim Ayub (13*) on the crease, the national side trails by 244 runs with the scoreboard at 23-1.