Pakistan’s memorable victory in Multan Test
Pakistan defeated England by 152 runs to win a Test match at their home ground for the first time since 2021. Behind this victory was the brilliant performance of Nauman Ali and Sajid Khan, who destroyed England’s batting in both innings. England lost eight wickets in just two hours, when their batsmen were flooded with sweeps and reverse sweep shots.
Noman Ali took 8 wickets in the second innings and took a total of 11 wickets in the match, which was the best performance of his career. Sajid Khan took 7 wickets in the first innings, which made both bowlers a historic feat by taking all 20 wickets in the match overall. The last time this happened was in 1972 when Dennis Lillee and Bob Messi took all the wickets in a Test.
This victory was also special for Pakistan because the match was won in just over three days, while the reused pitch of Multan was made suitable for spinners. With this victory, the series was leveled at 1-1 and interest increased in Rawalpindi for the third Test. It was Shan Masood’s first victory as captain, having suffered six consecutive defeats.
The important thing in this spectacular success of Pakistan was that important changes were made in the team. Babar Azam, Shaheen Afridi and Naseem Shah were dropped, and a new three-spinner team was formed, playing together for the first time. But in the end, Sajid and Nauman destroyed England’s batting line-up.
At the start of the fourth day, England’s overnight batters, Ollie Pope and Joe Root, practiced sweep shots and it was also their strategy to win by scoring another 261 runs. However, Pope was soon caught by Sajid and Joe Root could not last long. Root faced eight balls and played seven sweep shots, but was eventually lbw.
Thus, Pakistan made a comeback in the series with a big win and increased confidence for the next match.
