Pakistan demolished England on Friday as their spinners tore through the visitors’ batting line-up, securing a commanding victory at Multan Cricket Stadium and leveling the series 1-1.

Green Shirts beat visitors by 152 runs in the second Test in Multan.

Chasing 297 for victory, England were all out for 144 in the fourth day’s morning session. Skipper Ben Stokes had the top score for England with 37, while Noman Ali was pick of the Pakistan bowlers, claiming 8-46.

The hosts already had the upper hand over the visitors when the play resumed with England at 36-2 and in need of an extraordinary batting effort to get anywhere near the target.

However, the match soon took a daunting turn for England as vice captain Ollie Pope (22) fell in the second over of the day, giving Pakistan’s off-spinner Sajid Khan a return catch before left-arm spinner Noman ran amok.

Meanwhile, Noman dealt the tourists a body blow when he trapped Joe Root lbw for 18, a decision the batter reviewed but could not get overturned.

Harry Brook (16) fell to Noman in a similar fashion and England slumped to 88-6 when Jamie Smith was sent packing.

Stokes has played some match-defining knocks in his illustrious career and England badly needed a similar innings from him.

The captain, scoring at a run-a-ball rate, came dancing down the track against Noman and swung his bat only for it to fly out of his hands to midwicket.

Pakistan wicketkeeper Mohammad Rizwan had all the time in the world to collect the ball and whip off the bail with Stokes well out of the crease.

The third and final Test begins in Rawalpindi on Thursday.

Playing XI
Pakistan: Saim Ayub, Abdullah Shafique, Shan Masood (captain), Kamran Ghulam, Saud Shakeel (vice-captain), Mohammad Rizwan (wk), Salman Ali Agha, Aamir Jamal, Noman Ali, Sajid Khan and Zahid Mehmood

England: Zak Crawley, Ben Duckett, Ollie Pope, Joe Root, Harry Brook, Ben Stokes (captain), Jamie Smith (wk), Brydon Carse, Matt Potts, Jack Leach and Shoaib Bashir

The day ended with Jamie Smith (12*) and Brydon Carse (2*) on strike.

The Ben Stokes-led side will be resuming their first innings on the third day of the second test.

The touring side were 88 for one at tea with Ben Duckett unbeaten on 53 and Ollie Pope on five.

Scoring the most runs, Duckett made a century with 114 runs off 129 balls after smashing 16 boundaries solely.

He was dismissed after Agha Salman caught the catch by first slip when Sajid Khan delivered the first ball of the 43rd over.

Pope, on the other hand, couldn’t score much for the team, making 29 after taking 16 runs from his four boundaries.

Aiming for a half-century, Joe Root (34) was dismissed after Sajid, eyeing his third wicket, hit the stumps on the third ball of the 41st over.

Players including Harry Brook and English skipper Ben Stokes scored less than 10 runs in the first innings.

With Brook scoring 9 and Stokes making one run and leaving the stadium at the second ball of the 44th over delivered by Noman Ali.

The Shan Masood-led side so far played good with the ball, taking six wickets down of the visitors.

With Sajid taking four wickets solely while Noman dismissed two players in the innings so far.

Earlier today, England’s Duckett smashed a rapid unbeaten fifty as he opened for the visitors, leading their robust reply to Pakistan’s first-innings 366.

Duckett combined in a breezy 73-run opening stand with Zak Crawley, who led a charmed life before he fell for 27.

Crawley survived a run-out after a mix-up with Duckett only because bowler Sajid had broken the stumps before he could collect the ball.

Sajid appeared to have redeemed himself in the next over when his lbw appeal against Crawley was upheld.

Pakistan’s joy was short-lived, however, as Crawley, convinced by Duckett, reviewed the decision, which was reversed after replays confirmed the ball would have narrowly missed the stumps.

Crawley could not make the most of the reprieves, though, and fell to Noman Ali.

After the caught-behind appeal against Crawley had been turned down, left-arm spinner Noman cajoled his captain Shan Masood to review the decision and replays confirmed an edge.

Pakistan all out in first innings

Earlier, Pakistan were all out for 366 in their first innings on day two of the second Test with debutant Kamran Ghulam top scoring for the hosts with a fluent 118 and Saim Ayub contributing 77.

Spinner Jack Leach (4-114) and seamer Brydon Carse (3-50) impressed with the ball for England, who are 1-0 up in the three-Test series.

Aamer Jamal and Noman Ali showcased the resilience of Pakistan’s lower order, reaching 358 for eight at lunch on day two of the second Test against England in Multan on Wednesday.

Mohammad Rizwan and Salman Agha opened the second day at 37 and five, respectively, on 259-5. However, the Green Shirts soon lost Rizwan to Brydon Carse for 41 as England dominated the opening hour.

Rizwan had survived a strong lbw appeal in the previous over from Matthew Potts but edged Carse and Jamie Smith took a sharp catch behind the stumps.

Meanwhile, Agha contributed 31 but failed to convert the start into a big knock. He also fell caught behind after Potts managed to extract some extra bounce from a docile track, inducing an edge that nestled into Smith’s gloves.

Leach removed Khan for two but Jamal frustrated England even though the batter struggled to get going and needed on-field treatment.

Jamal is the lone specialist seamer in Pakistan’s spin-heavy attack and his fitness is crucial for the home side’s hopes of levelling the series in Multan.

Previously, Ghulam, 29, hit a superb century on his debut to guide Pakistan to 259-5 on the opening day of the second Test, replacing out-of-form Babar Azam at number four and foiled England’s aggressive bowling and fielding to score 118.

Ghulam led a fightback after the hosts, who won the toss, were struggling at 19-2 with Leach striking twice in the first hour. He added 149 for the defiant third wicket with Saim Ayub, who hit a career-best 77, and another 65 for the fifth wicket with Rizwan.

The debutant reached three figures with a boundary off spinner Joe Root, taking 280 minutes and becoming Pakistan’s 12th batter to score a century in his first Test.

With just half an hour before stumps, Ghulam was bowled by spinner Shoaib Bashir, ending a resolute 323-minute knock spiced with 11 fours and a six.

Meanwhile, England employed a short mid-off and two mid-wicket fielders to get wickets after lunch but the Multan pitch — the same used for the first Test — gave very little help to the spinners after some early promise.

England lead the three-match series 1-0.

Pakistan Playing XI

Saim Ayub, Abdullah Shafique, Shan Masood (captain), Kamran Ghulam, Saud Shakeel (vice-captain), Mohammad Rizwan (wk), Salman Ali Agha, Aamir Jamal, Noman Ali, Sajid Khan and Zahid Mehmood

England Playing XI

Zak Crawley, Ben Duckett, Ollie Pope, Joe Root, Harry Brook, Ben Stokes (captain), Jamie Smith (wk), Brydon Carse, Matt Potts, Jack Leach and Shoaib Bashir

Pakistan cricket team on Monday recovered in the first Test against England courtesy of captain Shan Masood’s century on the opening day at the Multan Cricket Stadium.

Winning the toss and electing to bat first, the national side suffered an early blow with opener Saim Ayub (4) getting caught behind against Gus Atkinson.

However, Masood and opener Abdullah Shafique’s 114-run stand steered the national side to 122-1 at lunch.

Currently, the score is 189-1 with Masood (109*) and Shafique (72*) on the crease.

The match, first of the three-match series, is being played at the Multan Cricket Stadium and is part of the ICC World Test Championship 2023-25.

During the match today, Masood was given a lbw after a delivery by Brydon Carse in the debutant seamer’s second over, but the batter reviewed the decision and got it overturned after replays confirmed the ball had pitched outside the leg stump.

Masood went on to take two runs off Atkinson to race to a 43-ball fifty.

Shafique got a reprieve on 35 when he went for a risky single and England’s stand-in captain Ollie Pope’s direct throw narrowly missed the stumps.

England’s regular captain Ben Stokes missed the test with a hamstring injury.

It is to be noted that England are being led by Ollie Pope in the first Test after the visitors’ captain Ben Stokes was ruled out of the contest due to a hamstring injury in the Hundred League.

Moreover, James Anderson, is not accompanying the team on their tour of Pakistan, as he is participating in the Scotland’s Alfred Dunhill Links Championship.

The last time England were in Pakistan for a red-ball series, they handed a 3-0 defeat to the national side back in 2022.

Before that, the visitors had played 24 Tests in Pakistan, winning just two out of them making the 3-0 win much more remarkable.

Playing XI

Pakistan: Shan Masood (captain), Saud Shakeel (vice-captain), Saim Ayub, Abdullah Shafique, Babar Azam, Mohammad Rizwan (wicket-keeper), Salman Ali Agha, Aamir Jamal, Shaheen Afridi, Naseem Shah, Abrar Ahmad

England: Zak Crawley, Ben Duckett, Ollie Pope (captain), Joe Root, Harry Brook, Jamie Smith, Chris Woakes, Gus Atkinson, Brydon Carse, Jack Leach, Shoaib Bashir