England vs Pakistan Day 2: Pakistan put hosts in a debacle after restricting them on 92/4

England vs Pakistan Day 2

Day 2 of the 1st test match between England vs Pakistan at the Old Trafford ended on the visitors’ favour as they took four wickets in the final session to reduce the hosts on 92/4. 

England was batting at 92/4, still trailing by 234 runs at the stumps. Ollie Pope (46*) and wicket-keeper Jos Buttler (15) is still batting for England with a 30-run partnership for the sixth wicket. 

Earlier in the day, Pakistan resumed their innings on 139/2, with Babar Azam batting on 65 runs. He soon became the target of James Anderson after giving an edge to the England skipper on the slips on 69 runs. 

No other Pakistani batsmen were able to face the fierce bowling lineup of England. However, bowling all-rounder Shadab Khan provided resistance to the side’s innings by scoring 45 runs as he batted along till the 96th over. Opener Shan Masood batted all along and went on to hammer 156 runs and take his team’s total to 326 runs in 109.3 overs.

England vs Pakistan put hosts in a debacle

In response, England came into bat but lost its very first wicket in the first over of the innings as Shaheen Afridi dismissed Rory Burns on just 4 runs. 

In the next few overs, pacer Mohammad Abbas trapped Dominic Sibley for an LBW, thereby restricting England to 12/2. Skipper Joe Root and his deputy Ben Stokes were on the crease as they had the responsibility to resurrect the side’s innings. 

But unfortunately, the Pakistani bowlers had penetrated into England’s batting lineup as Mohammad Abbas again struck by removing Ben Stokes for a duck. 

Skipper Azhar Ali played a masterstroke by bringing in the spinner Yasir Shah and that worked for the visitors as this time England skipper Joe Root (14 runs) gave away his wicket by edging a catch to the wicketkeeper Mohammad Rizwan. 

Pakistan got all the four wickets in the final session before the end of the day’s play, and also dominated England’s batting lineup. England has struggled at the Old Trafford as could be seen from their loss against the West Indies in the first test match of the series.