Despite England players being affected by illness a day before their first of the three-match Test series against Pakistan, the visitors decided to play the match as originally scheduled, on Thursday. Notably, it was England’s first Test match in Pakistan after 17 years, which led to attracting cricket fans even more.
After winning the toss and opting to bat first, the English openers Zak Crawley and Ben Duckett started their innings aggressively and were smashing every bowler out of the boundary. Pakistan deployed five bowlers and all of them struggled to ask questions to the English openers. Crawley soon turned on the T20 mode, going after Haris Rauf with five boundaries in the space of ten balls. He scored 122 runs off 111 runs which includes 21 fours.
Ben also scored a sensational ton scoring 107 runs off 110 balls with 15 fours. Boundaries kept coming at regular intervals as Pakistan bowlers failed to put pressure on England's batters. The pitch was looking too flat as there was no movement for the pacers and no spin for the spinners as well.
England became the first team to score 500 runs on Day 1
England’s middle-order batters Ollie Pope and Harry Brook also scored magnificent tons on the first day of the match. Four English batsmen scored centuries as the tourists cantered to 506-4 at the close of play. England became the first team to score 500 runs on the opening day of a Test match on Thursday.
Pakistan were missing the injured Shaheen Shah Afridi a lot. There were four debutants playing for Pakistan, Haris Rauf, right-arm seamer Mohammad Ali, legspinner Zahid Mahmood and middle-order batter Saud Shakeel, who looked clueless and couldn’t get the breakthrough when needed.
Pakistan will look to bounce back on the 2nd day of the first Test match. England crossed the 500-run mark already on Day 1, they will look to add more runs on the scoreboard and will try to take early wickets after declaring the innings. However, England entertained fans around the world and they expressed it on social media.
Here are the tweets :
Pak fans right now #PAKvENG pic.twitter.com/pFYUdG2JJV
— Ayush™ 🇮🇳🚩 (@vkkings007) December 1, 2022
Pakistani team to every batter of England: #PAKvENG pic.twitter.com/EHB4O2qHck
— MUSKAN 🇵🇰 (@Musskey) December 1, 2022
Pakistani fans to england who waited 17 years for england to come on our soil ....😂😂#PakvEng #EngvsPak pic.twitter.com/PgWuuaDYQe
— Arslan Rafique (@ArslanR13925150) December 1, 2022
England Batsmen after coming back to the dressing room :-#PAKvENG pic.twitter.com/YyDiippndo
— Utsav 💔 (@utsav045) December 1, 2022
England batsman getting confused between T20 & Test #PAKvENG pic.twitter.com/gZXt3yhkZW
— MⒺ︎h͜͡🇺 🄻🇮🇳 (@ImMehulOkk) December 1, 2022
#PAKvENG
— . (@m_cutie_) December 1, 2022
Pakistani bowlers today pic.twitter.com/NjxcsxL1tX
172/0*
— BoiesX 🕯 (@BoiesX45) December 1, 2022
No one trolls Pakistan cricket fans more than the Pakistani players themselves 🤣😂#PAKvENG || #WTC23 pic.twitter.com/40qFAc4wg9
Joe Root refused to score against minows on a flat track #PAKvENG pic.twitter.com/eKYdV0KVMz
— Jahazi (@Oye_Jahazi) December 1, 2022
Harry Brook smashed 6 Fours in an over against Saud shakeel in Test match.#HarryBrook #WTC23 #PAKvENG #BazBall pic.twitter.com/LgyqzItYTB
— Cricket Master (@Master__Cricket) December 1, 2022
Stop this match it's illegal man
— Himanshu🇮🇳 (@proudindian7197) December 1, 2022