13 wickets fell on the first day, Pakistan trailed by 194 runs, bowlers did the job

New Delhi. 13 wickets fell on the first day of the Rawalpindi Test match. On a pitch conducive to spin bowlers, Pakistan’s spin bowlers made England’s batsmen dance to the tune of their spin. England scored 267 runs in the first innings with Jamie Smith’s fighting half-century. At one time after lunch, England’s score was 118 runs for six wickets, but apart from playing an inning of 89 runs, Smith played an important role in taking the team’s score beyond 250 runs by adding 105 runs with Gus Atkinson (39). For Pakistan, off-spinner Sajid Khan took six wickets for 128 runs while left-arm spinner Noman Ali took three wickets for 88 runs.

In response, Pakistan has scored 73 runs for three wickets by the end of the day’s play. On the spin-friendly pitch of Rawalpindi Cricket Stadium, Pakistan team is still behind by 194 runs with seven wickets remaining. At the end of the day’s play, captain Shan Masood and Saud Shakeel were playing with 16 runs each. Pakistan lost the wickets of openers Abdullah Shafiq (14) and Sam Ayub (19) and Kamran Ghulam (03), who scored a century in the last Test, in the second innings. Kamran was bowled by fast bowler Gus Atkinson.

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From Pune to Pakistan… all 20 wickets were in the name of spin bowlers, guest batsmen on both sides got trapped in the trap of spin.

Aamir Jamal just couldn’t bowl
Earlier during England’s innings, Pakistan did not give its only spinner Aamir Jamal a chance to bowl. According to ESPN, this is only the second time in Test history when a team did not bowl to a fast bowler in the first innings of a Test match. During Pakistan’s victory in the second Test in Multan last week, Sajid and Noman took all 20 wickets of England and here too both of them bowled 42 consecutive overs and gave trouble to the visiting team.

Smith and Atkinson handled the innings
Wicketkeepers Smith and Atkinson, however, handled the innings. Smith hit six sixes and five fours in his/her innings while Atkinson hit five fours. Smith completed his/her half-century in 94 balls. Just before the tea break, he/she was caught by wicketkeeper Mohammad Rizwan while trying to play a slog sweep on the ball of Zahid Mahmood. Atkinson also returned to the pavilion after catching Noman on his/her ball.

England had scored 110 runs for 5 wickets till lunch.
Before this, Sajid and Noman bowled all 30 overs before lunch. Despite a good start from openers Ben Duckett (52) and Jack Crowley (29), England’s score reached 110 for five at lunch. Duckett and Crowley completed the team’s half-century of runs in 12 overs with the help of sweep and reverse sweep but after this the team lost five wickets in the next 13 overs. Noman gave the first success to Pakistan by sending Crowley to the pavilion, after which Sajid got Ollie Pope (03) and Joe Root (05) LBW in consecutive overs. After completing his/her half-century, Duckett got LBW on the ball of Noman in the same over. Harry Brook (05) played the ball on the wickets in an attempt to sweep Sajid. The second day will be important for Pakistan. Captain Masood will have to play a big innings.

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