Watch cricket video highlights of England tour of Pakistan 2024. Second test between Pakistan and England. Venue of the match will be Multan.
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It had been a long time coming for Pakistan, but the outcome was rapid. Noman Ali and Sajid Khan teamed for the second time in the match, bowling out England and securing Pakistan’s first home Test victory since 2021. England lost eight wickets in less than two hours, thanks to a flurry of sweeps and reverse-sweeps. Noman grabbed seven of them individually, finishing with 8 for 46 and 11 for 147 throughout the match, both career highs. Sajid, who took 7 for 111 in the first innings, got the other two wickets, making them the first partnership to capture all 20 wickets in a Test since Dennis Lillee and Bob Massie in 1972.
A devastating victory, accomplished in three and a half days on a re-used surface that Pakistan had anticipated would aid their spinners, brings the series level at 1-1 ahead of the third Test in Rawalpindi. Shan Masood also won for the first time since taking over as captain, following a six-game losing streak. Their triumph was all the more astonishing given the adjustments made in response to last week’s crushing innings loss, with Babar Azam, Shaheen Afridi, and Naseem Shah discarded, and Pakistan opting for a three-man spin attack that had never played together.
In the end, Zahid Mahmood only had to bowl six overs as Sajid and Noman, playing his first Test since July 2023, destroyed England together. This was day four of the second Test, but the Multan pitch had already seen nine days of play – with three days in between for a quick spritz – and was already giving constant turn. England’s not-out hitters, Ollie Pope and Joe Root, had been rehearsing their sweeps before to the start of play, and it was soon evident what their strategy was in their bids to score another 261 runs for victory. “Basically getting your broom out,” as Ben Stokes described it later.
Pope, on the other hand, did not play a single shot in fury before being the first wicket to fall, poking Sajid’s second delivery straight back into the bowler’s hands. Harry Brook attempted to sweep his opening ball; Root did the same, and the battle lines were established. Not that such clarity of purpose benefited England much. Root and Brook shared a record fourth-wicket stand of 454 in the first Test on this ground, but the shift in control and poise was dramatic.
Root faced eight balls, attempting to sweep seven of them before getting struck on the hip as he extended out on off stump and played over the ball, resulting in lbw – a judgment affirmed on review. Brook got one reversal away to the boundary, but his frenzied attitude was not meant to last, as he returned to his 21st delivery, the ball lingering a little low as Noman delivered from around the wicket, to be stuck in front of the leg stump swinging over the line. England were 78 for 5, the top order had returned to the dressing room, and the game was all but over.
It was shortly 88 for 6, as Jamie Smith top-edged a slog sweep to mid-on three balls after hitting Noman for four with the identical stroke. Stokes hardly used a straight-bat stroke and had the most success, reaching 37 in less than a run a ball before being enticed down the field by Noman. His swing across the line resulted in the bat landing near midwicket, and Mohammad Rizwan completed the stumping, a fitting metaphor for England’s loss of hold.
That was pretty much it, save from a brief sally from Brydon Carse, who survived being given out lbw to Sajid via the DRS and then hammered the offspinner for three massive sixes before Noman’s cunning caused another swipe and a thin edge to slip. In his following over, Noman bowled Jack Leach and Shoaib Bashir consecutively, completing Pakistan’s temporary Multan blueprint.
