England won a brilliant Test match against Pakistan on a flat Rawalpindi pitch on December 5, Monday. They defeated the hosts by 74 runs in a thrilling first Test of the three-match series at Pindi Cricket Stadium on Monday. After winning the toss England captain Ben Stokes chose to bat as the pitch has nothing to assist the bowlers. England’s opener started aggressively and started belting every bowler for boundaries. Openers Zak Crawley and Ben Duckett put a 233-run stand together and helped England to rack up a world record 506 runs on the opening day of the Test.
England scored a mammoth 657 in the first innings in just 101 overs. In reply to this, Pakistan also monitored well as their openers Abdullah Shafique and Imam-ul-Haq put a 225-run stand. Pakistan skipper Babar Azam also made full use of the dull pitch and played a brilliant knock of 136 runs off 168 balls and led Pakistan to the score of 579 runs.
England’s brave decision to declare on 342
England declared on 264 in the third innings of the match with 3 wickets remaining. It was very unexpected from England skipper Stokes and it proved to be the bravest decision ever. The hosts were chasing a 343-run target against the Three Lions. Earlier, Saud Shakeel hit a solid maiden half-century before departing for 76, while Imam-ul-Haq and Mohammad Rizwan scored 48 and 46, respectively.
But England made full use of the old ball and dismissed many batters in a short interval of time. However, the tenth wicket partnership between Naseem Shah and Mohammad Ali proved to be a bit of a headache for the English side but Jack Leach dismissed the last batter as the new ball did the trick for Leach as it slides on past the edge to hit the pad. Naseem reviewed it but ball-tracking showed the ball that it was crashing into the leg stump.
Here’s how fans reacted on Twitter:
Hmari attacking approach hi nhi we are always on defense and at the end,we lose it. #heartattack #PAKvENG #ENGvPAK #Robinson #Stokes
— Faheem Aziz (@FaheemA1717) December 5, 2022
Kya kroge aisi bowling ka jo apne ghar pe ek test match bhi na jita sake… Or kya kroge king babar ka jo zarurat k time pe hi flop ho gya… #EngvsPak
— SKY club 🇮🇳🇮🇳 (@vkumar005) December 5, 2022
England have done it on highway 😎👏👏👏👏👏👏#EngvsPak #PAKvENG pic.twitter.com/pxmAMqUikV
— PurushPSN (@PSN4499) December 5, 2022
#TeamIndia must learn "Intend" from England. Merely talking wont suffice. What a win 👌🏻#Bazball #EngvsPak #Stokes
— VaLix (@LixLazar) December 5, 2022
Risk it to win it.
— tylerdurden (@tylerdurden__17) December 5, 2022
– @englandcricket#EngvsPak
England vs Pakistan playing match on this highway 😁😁 pic.twitter.com/LBGwyQNEmr
— Chetan Choudhary 🇮🇳🇮🇳🇮🇳 (@ChetanC75495924) December 1, 2022
Keh k lena in Real life .
— TRY BALL (@tryball00) December 5, 2022
Pakistan vs England#PAKvENG
TEST CRICKET : HEART OF CRICKET. pic.twitter.com/bHdwgj2DSv
96 over 268 pr allout… Vs England 😂😂😂#EngvsPak
— Ravindra solanki 🌐 (@ravisol66901997) December 5, 2022
What a wonderful advertisement for Test Cricket… Thank you @benstokes38 for some amazing decisions to bring life into a dead test match…#EngvsPak
— Ishan Dhaliwal (@Ishan_Dhaliwal) December 5, 2022
