England yesterday became the first team to win a Test by an innings after conceding more than 500 runs in the first innings, hammering Pakistan by an innings and 47 runs on the fifth day of the first Test.
With Pakistan’s Abrar Ahmed not batting due to illness, England reduced the hosts to 220-9 after some early resistance as Jack Leach claimed three wickets to spark huge celebrations among a small, but vocal group of traveling English fans.
While the bowlers completed the job before lunch, it was a stupendous batting effort a day earlier that set up the win after man-of-the-match Harry Brook scored a triple-century and Joe Root made a double-century.
Photo: AP
“We knew the way to win this game was to put a mammoth score on the board,” stand-in England skipper Ollie Pope said. “I think that’s credit to [Brook and Root] for the skills they’ve got with the bat, the determination they had to put the team in a winning position. So it was awesome.”
Pakistan resumed on a precarious 152-6 and Salman Agha was the first to depart in the morning after a defiant 63, with the introduction of Leach helping England snap his 109-run stand with Aamer Jamal.
England’s pace bowlers peppered the two overnight batsmen with bouncers and Jamal recovered after being hit on the side of the head by a fiery ball from Brydon Carse to bring up his half-century.
He was then granted a lifeline when Pope dropped a tough chance at square-leg — England’s fifth dropped catch of the innings — and was not out on 55 when he ran out of partners.
Leach pulled off a stunning catch off his own bowling to remove Shaheen Afridi, before having Naseem Shah stumped to finish with figures of 4-30.
England had declared after their highest total in 86 years, a colossal 823-7 in 150 overs after Brook’s 317 and Root’s 262, and extracted the most out of a lifeless pitch at the Multan Cricket Stadium to rattle Pakistan.
The hosts flexed their muscles in the early part of the Test with 556 in the first innings, but found themselves under the gun trailing England by 115 runs at the end of the fourth day and they folded under pressure.
Pakistan skipper Shan Masood said his team were pained after the loss and would be seeking a response when the sides meet in the second Test on Tuesday next week.
“We’re hurt as a nation, but the beauty of the game is it always gives you another chance. Life gives you another chance so the quick turnaround might be quite beneficial for us and we’re all looking forward to it,” Masood said. “We’re getting into good positions. You ask your batting side to put up a good score in the first innings, and the onus on us now is to set the game up well so we can finish it off. The trick for us is that we should learn, obviously, from England as well.”
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