With their aggressive approach, England took four wickets in the final session to bundle out Pakistan for 499 for 7 at the end of the third day of the first Test and keep their hopes of a win alive on Saturday.
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On a flat surface, the visitors were forced to toil in the field throughout the afternoon as Babar Azam led Pakistan’s resistance with a brilliant century. With Agha Salman (10) and Zahid Mahmood (1) unbeaten at the crease, the hosts were trailing by 158 runs at stumps on the third day.
Babar’s calm and composed innings of 136 came to an end before tea when he cut Will Jacques straight to point and departed. It was the first sign of any spin in the track, and breathed life into the rest of England’s bowling attack, as Pakistan lost four wickets for just 88 runs in the final session.
Jack ended the day as the most prolific of England’s bowlers with 3–132 from 32 overs. The last wicket to fall on the day was Naseem Shah, hitting it over deep midwicket, but Jack Leach had a long way to go before taking a fine catch.
Mohammad Rizwan edged the ball straight to Ben Stokes at short midwicket to give James Anderson his first wicket in Pakistan, before Jack took two late wickets. In the first over after tea, Ollie Robinson caught the edge of Saud Shakeel’s bat on the way to the wicket-keeper, which set the tone for the rest of the season.
Earlier in the day, with Pakistan almost in complete control for most of the time, Babar became the seventh player to score a century in the match, and successfully built on the hosts’ overnight total of 181/0.
Stokes remained without one of his bowling options during the day as Liam Livingstone was unable to take the field with a right knee issue, which led to him being replaced by substitute Keaton Jennings on Friday.
England made inroads before lunch, with the spinners taking three wickets after both openers – Abdullah Shafiq (114) and Imam-ul-Haq (121) – scored their centuries, also the first in Test history to do so. became where both opening stands exceeded 200, and all four went on to score centuries.
Jack was brought into the team on the morning of the match when Ben Foakes was unwell with a viral infection that had spread to the touring party, but had to step in as a bowler in Livingstone’s absence and proved a useful substitute for Stokes. . ,
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