Sports Desk
Southampton: Zak Crawley and Jos Buttler stole the show on Day 2 as England declared the first inning of third Test for 583-8 against Pakistan.
Crawley and Buttler gave no chance to the bowlers throughout the whole frustrating day for Pakistan as they both fell to part-timers Asad Shafiq and Fawad Alam, respectively. The batting duo scored record-breaking fifth-highest fifth-wicket partnership of 359 runs.
Resuming at 332-4, England saw their settled batsmen Crawley and Buttler giving more power to the team’s total. The duo added 154 runs together before Asad got a breakthrough for Pakistan with Rizwan making the most of a stumping chance to send Crawley back home after scoring career-best 267 off 393 balls laced with 34 boundaries and a six.
Buttler then joined by Chris Woakes to add 44 runs to the team’s total. Buttler fell to Fawad after scoring 152 off 311 balls. Woakes also lost his wicket to Fawad after scoring 40. Dom Bess remained not out for 27.
For Pakistan, Fawad, Shaheen Shah Afridi, and Yasir Shah bagged two wickets each while Naseem Shah and Asad Shafiq shared a wicket apiece.