After a series of losses, the Pakistan cricket team finally tasted victory in Test cricket. Pakistan defeated England in the second Test match held in Multan. The strategy that Pakistan used to secure this win was also applied in the ongoing third Test match in Rawalpindi. As a result, after a long gap of 142 years, a rare scene unfolded in Test cricket. Just like in the previous Test, Pakistan trapped England with their spin attack, to the point where not a single ball was bowled by a fast bowler in the entire innings—a situation seen only for the second time in Test cricket history.
Pakistan’s Reliance on Spin Again
The third and final Test of the series began at the Pindi Cricket Stadium on Thursday, October 24. As expected, the pitch prepared for this match favored spin bowlers. Pakistan’s spin attack had already helped them defeat England in the previous Test, marking their first home Test victory since February 2021. The spin duo of Nauman Ali and Sajid Khan had led Pakistan to that win, taking all 20 wickets across both innings. Remarkably, only these two bowled in the second innings of that match.
A Rare Sight After 142 Years
In the third Test, Pakistan once again adopted the same formula, starting the bowling with both spinners. This approach worked well, and England’s innings ended at 267 runs. Both spinners bowled continuously for 42 overs before a change was made, with spinner Zahid Mahmood taking over, followed shortly by another spinner, Salman Ali Agha.
England batted for a total of 68.2 overs, with all the overs bowled by four Pakistani spinners. This marked only the second instance in Test cricket history where an entire first innings was bowled without any fast bowler delivering a single ball. The only other time this happened was in 1882 when Australia’s Joey Palmer and Edwin Evans bowled 115 consecutive four-ball overs against England. Thus, this rare occurrence was witnessed in Test cricket after 142 years.
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Challenges for Pakistan
Once again, Sajid Khan was the star off-spinner in the first innings, taking six wickets. Sajid had taken seven wickets in the first innings of the previous Test, while left-arm spinner Nauman Ali, who took three wickets in the first innings of the Multan Test, took three wickets here as well. Leg spinner Zahid Mahmood also took one wicket. However, Pakistan’s own innings didn’t start well, as they lost three wickets for just 73 runs by the end of the first day. Interestingly, two of England’s wickets were taken by spinners, while one was claimed by a fast bowler.