Sports Desk
MULTAN: The opening day of the first Pakistan vs England Test concluded with the home team recov-ering and scoring 328/4 on Monday at the Multan Cricket Stadium.
Pakistan’s come back was aided by skipper Shan Masood who scored a century on the first day, leading his side from the front.
The side, after winning the toss and opting to bat first, sustained an early shock with opening batter Saim Ayub getting caught behind the wicket, becoming Gus Atkinson’s victim after scoring just four runs. However, Masood and opener Abdullah Shafique’s 114-run stand steered the national side to 122-1 at lunch.
The match ended at 328/4 with Saud Shakeel (35*) and Naseem Shah (0*) on the crease.
The match, first of the three-match series, is being played at the Multan Cricket Stadium and is part of the ICC World Test Championship 2023-25.
During the match today, Masood was given a lbw after a delivery by Brydon Carse in the debutant seamer’s second over, but the batter reviewed the decision and got it overturned after replays con-firmed the ball had pitched outside the leg stump.
Masood went on to take two runs off Atkinson to race to a 43-ball fifty.
Shafique got a reprieve on 35 when he went for a risky single and England’s stand-in captain Ollie Pope’s direct throw narrowly missed the stumps.
Despite missing the stumps, the stand-in captain didn’t give up and dismissed Shafique at 59.5 over, after the player scored 102 runs of 184 balls, with 10 boundaries and two towering sixes.
However, players like Saim Ayub couldn’t do much for the team and ended up making four runs only.
Additionally, the star of the day, Masood was caught by Jack Leach at 62.3 overs, after contributing the most with 151 runs off 177 balls, with 13 shots towards the boundary and two sixes.
Babar Azam aimed for a half century but ended up making runs below 40.
The former white-ball captain made 30 off 71 after five fours, directing towards the pavilion at 84.3 overs after Chris Woakes dismissed the player through a lbw.
Bowling first, Woakes and Leach bagged one wicket each while Atkinson took two wickets.
Pakistan will resume their first innings on the second day, starting from the score they ended with on Monday.
It is to be noted that England are being led by Ollie Pope in the first Test after the visitors’ captain Ben Stokes was ruled out of the contest due to a hamstring injury in the Hundred League.
Moreover, James Anderson, is not accompanying the team on their tour of Pakistan, as he is partici-pating in the Scotland’s Alfred Dunhill Links Championship.
The last time England were in Pakistan for a red-ball series, they handed a 3-0 defeat to the national side back in 2022.
Before that, the visitors had played 24 Tests in Pakistan, winning just two out of them making the 3-0 win much more remarkable.
Playing XI
Pakistan: Shan Masood (captain), Saud Shakeel (vice-captain), Saim Ayub, Abdullah Shafique, Babar Azam, Mohammad Rizwan (wicket-keeper), Salman Ali Agha, Aamir Jamal, Shaheen Afridi, Naseem Shah, Abrar Ahmad
England: Zak Crawley, Ben Duckett, Ollie Pope (captain), Joe Root, Harry Brook, Jamie Smith, Chris Woakes, Gus Atkinson, Brydon Carse, Jack Leach, Shoaib Bashir
