[ad_1]
Stumps Pakistan 499 for 7 (Babar 136, Imam 121, Shafique 114, Salman 10*, Zahid 1*, Jacks 3-132, Leach 2-160) trail England 657 by 158 runs
Four late wickets rewarded England for some hard graft on a pitch where runs have ruled, keeping their prospects of pushing for victory over Pakistan in this first Test alive.
Jacks found out only minutes before the match started that he would be playing as a replacement for Ben Foakes, who failed to recover in time from the stomach bug that hit the England camp in the lead-up. By the end of the third day, Jacks had bowled 33 overs, while his fellow debutant and part-time spinner Liam Livingstone sat in the dressing room nursing a knee injury.
It was the first time a Test match had featured two double-century opening stands and only the second time the four openers had scored hundreds, though the first time it had occurred in the first two innings.
Jacks replaced Root and his first ball of the day was pummelled through the covers by Shafique but, three balls later, Shafique tried to cut a wider one and edged behind to Ollie Pope, standing in for Foakes as wicketkeeper.
While they hadn’t been scoring at England’s blistering rate, Pakistan’s opening stand of 225 didn’t look bad in comparison to the record 233 put on by Zak Crawley and Ben Duckett.
Despite faint hints of reverse swing, England took the new ball shortly before lunch and handed it to Leach, who trapped Azhar lbw almost immediately with one that skidded on to the knee roll in line with leg stump, giving England three wickets for the morning.
During the afternoon, however, Babar cashed in. He punished anything short, swinging Jacks powerfully through the leg side for four three times either side of his advance down the pitch to launch Leach for six over long-on and bring up his fifty.
With Root bowling wide of off stump and five fielders stationed on the off side, Babar wouldn’t bite, simply stepping across and hammering the ball straight past the bowler to the boundary.
In vain attempts to gain something – anything – with the ball, Root roamed round the field seeking sweaty foreheads to rub directly with the shiny side, first seizing on Leach’s bald pate and then thrusting it under the raised peak of Pope’s cap.
It was Jacks who finally removed Babar, chipping to Leach at point, and then Anderson claimed his first when he had Rizwan caught low by Stokes at short midwicket for 29. In the fading light, England turned again to Jacks and capitalised when Naseem Shah holed out to Leach, running in from deep midwicket.
[ad_2]
Source link
