Multan: Left-arm spinner Jack Leach took all three wickets to fall on day five’s play to complete his four-wicket haul as England thrashed Pakistan by an innings and 47 runs to take a 1-0 lead in the three-match series at the Multan Cricket Stadium Friday.
The astonishing win for England also makes Pakistan, who were dismissed for 220 in the second innings, the first team in Test history to lose by an innings after scoring 500 runs in their first innings.
Resuming from 152/6, Agha Salman and Aamer Jamal led Pakistan’s resistance as the duo reached their respective half-centuries, apart from being helped by reprieves from stand-in captain Ollie Pope and Shoaib Bashir.
But Leach provided the breakthrough when he trapped Salman lbw for 63, as Pakistan burnt a review. He then held on to a sharp return catch of Shaheen Shah Afridi and then had Naseem Shah stumped easily. With Abrar Ahmed not coming out to bat after being in hospital since last evening due to fever and body ache, it meant England achieved one of the most remarkable wins in Test cricket.
England recovered from conceding 556 in the first innings on a flat Multan pitch, and then came out all guns blazing to smash a whopping 823/7 declared in their turn with the bat. That total is also the fourth-highest Test innings total of all time, the highest in the 21st century and the highest total by any team in Pakistan.
The main architect of this big win for England was batter Harry Brook’s 317, which is now the highest score by a batter away from home at number five or below in Test cricket, as well as become the only batter to score centuries in all of his first four Test matches in Pakistan.
Joe Root, who made a fantastic 262, has also become the leading run-getter for England in Test cricket, going past Alastair Cook’s 12472. He has also moved to sixth place in the men’s Test century list (35).
Root and Brook’s mammoth partnership of 454 is the highest for England in Test cricket, beating the 411-run stand between Peter May and Colin Cowdrey against West Indies in 1957, and has also taken the record for the highest partnership in Tests against Pakistan.
In terms of the World Test Championship standings, England are at fourth place with a points percentage of 45.59, while Pakistan are at the bottom of the table with a points percentage of 16.67.
Brief Scores: Pakistan 556 and 220 (Agha Salman 63, Aamer Jamal 55 not out, Jack Leach 4-30) lost to England 823/7 dec by an innings and 47 runs
