3 Positives to take away for Pakistan from 2nd Test against England

The second Test Match between England and Pakistan Test Series inevitably ended on a draw after rain, bad light and wet outfield interfered for the most of it. After winning the toss, Azhar Ali decided to bat first just like he did in Manchester. On a gloomy day with the ball moving around, the Pakistan batsmen had a hard time in the middle.

Only 45.4 overs were bowled on Day 1 and the relentless English bowling attack proved to be too good for the visitors. Pakistan, with the help of gutsy half-centuries from opener Abid Ali and wicket-keeper batsman Mohammad Rizwan, managed to score a respectable total of 236. The third day of the Test match was completely washed out and only 10.2 overs were bowled on Day 4.

The final day also witnessed a delayed start and finally, both teams were on the field for just a mere formality. In a Test Match where only 134.3 overs were bowled, it’s hard to find positives or negatives for a team. But still, we tried to squeeze in a few positives for Pakistan to take away from the rain-halted match.

3. Resilience of the batters

The conditions at the Ageas Bowl were extreme for the batsmen. The ball was swinging like a pendulum from Day 1 and batting was all about surviving instead of scoring runs. In typical English conditions with Broad and Anderson in the opposition camp, the Pakistan batsmen showed some good resilience and reached the score of 236. Particularly the lower-order which is considered to be the weak point of the line-up, batted with guts.

At the top, Abid Ali batted well for his 60 runs against some quality swing bowling with Azhar Ali and Babar Azam playing the supporting role. Batting at seven, it was the gutsy knock of 72 by Mohammad Rizwan that impressed everyone.

Pakistan were 158 for 6 when they lost Babar Azam in the 64th over. After that Rizwan added 78 runs along with the tail-enders and put on a fighting total at the board. The lower-order of the team which was under criticism for lack of contribution with the bat also supported the wicket-keeper batsman well.