After England’s visitors were all out for a whopping 657 in Rawalpindi, Pakistan successfully navigated the early overs to reach 17 without loss before lunch on Friday, the second day of the inaugural Test against England.
Imam-ul-Haq and Abdullah Shafique, Pakistan’s openers, were on 11 and 6, respectively. Despite the flat Rawalpindi Stadium pitch, Pakistan needs to score 458 runs to avoid the follow-on.
Harry Brook raised his overnight score of 101 to 153, one of the four centuries in the innings, as England earlier added 151 runs in 125 minutes after resuming at 506-4.
Naseem Shah, a pacer who finished with 3-140, dismissed captain Ben Stokes (41), rookie Liam Livingstone (9) and Brook.
Leg-spinner Zahid Mahmood made his Test debut by giving up the highest runs—235—for his four wickets. Suraj Randiv, an off-spinner for Sri Lanka, gave up 222 against India in Colombo in 2010. Total England scored against Pakistan is higher than any other Test total they have achieved (it was 589-9 in Manchester in 2016).
Thursday saw England break Australia’s record of 494-6 against South Africa in Sydney by becoming the first team to score 500 runs on the first day of a Test match.
Zak Crawley (122), Ollie Pope (108), and Ben Duckett (107) were the other centurions in the innings. The three-match Test series is England’s first in Pakistan for 17 years.
