Pakistan 499-7 England’s hopes of victory alive
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England kept alive their hopes of winning the first Test against Pakistan as a couple of late wickets on the third day put them in a strong position at the Pindi Cricket Stadium in Rawalpindi on Saturday.
RAWALPINDI, (APP – UrduPoint / Pakistan Point News – December 3rd, 2022 ) : England kept alive their hopes of winning the first Test against Pakistan as some late wickets on the third day put them in a strong position in Pindi cricket. Delivered in Stadium. Rawalpindi on Saturday.
At stumps Pakistan were on 499-7, still 158 behind in reply to England’s mammoth total of 657.
There were three hundreds for Pakistan as captain Babar Azam (136), Imam-ul-Haq (121) and Abdullah Shafiq (114).
Abdullah and Imam scored their third Test centuries off 177 and 180 balls respectively, taking their overnight opening stand from 181 to 225.
Abdullah continued to show his sublime class as the right-handed batsman has now scored three hundreds and four fifties in eight matches at an average of 76.
Rawalpindi is also turning out to be a great venue for the left-handed Imam as he has scored three of his Test hundreds at this ground so far.
The morning session belonged to England as they picked up three Pakistan wickets, including two of opener and one of batsman Azhar Ali.
England got their breakthrough less than an hour into the third day when Abdullah attempted to cut a wide ball from Jack Leach and edged it past the wicketkeeper. Five overs later, Imam dismissed left-arm off-spinner Jack Leach, but was caught at long-on by Ollie Robinson.
Azhar was also dismissed lbw by Leach on 27. Pakistan’s score was 290-3 at lunch.
Babar, who was in fine form, shared a 123-run stand for the fourth wicket with Saud Shakeel (37) as England endured a barren mid-season. He then put on a 75-ball 60 with Mohammad Rizwan to see Pakistan get away from the follow-on mark. Around 40 minutes before stumps, Babar cut Jack to backward point. After this, James Anderson had Rizwan caught by Stokes at mid-wicket, while Naseem Shah also caught him at the same place when three wickets fell for 24 runs.
The match is the first Test in history where both opening partnerships shared double centuries (Abdullah and Imam for Pakistan, Ben Duckett and Zak Crawley for England), and four players scored tons.
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