England vs Pakistan, 2nd Test Stats Review: Abrar Ahmed’s dream debut, England’s domination under McCullum and Stokes, and other stats

England continue their solid run of form in Test cricket under coach Brendon McCullum and captain Ben Stokes as they defeated Pakistan by 26 runs to clinch the second game in Multan and take an unassailable lead of 2-0 in the three-match series. Chasing a target of 355, Saud Shakeel top-scored for his side with the knock of 94 off 213 with Mohammad Nawaz amassing 45 on the fourth day. Pacer Mark Wood returned with the figures of 4/65 as the visitors sealed a historic series in Pakistan after 22 years.

Speaking about how the encounter panned out, captain Stokes won the toss and opted to bat first. Ben Duckett and Ollie Pope struck their respective half-centuries but day one completely belonged to debutant Abrar Ahmed who spun his web with his seven-wicket haul. Playing just his first Test match, Ahmed dismissed the first seven English batters and ended his spell with figures of 7/114 in 22 overs as the tourists got bowled out for 281.

Skipper Babar Azam and Saud Shakeel scored 75 and 63 runs respectively with no other player contributing in the first innings. The hosts got bundled out for just 202 as Jack Leach picked up 4/98 while Wood and Joe Root snared two scalps each. Duckett registered yet another half-century in the second innings but it was young Harry Brook who stole the show yet again with his magnificent knock of 108. England managed to post 275 on the board with Abrar again impressing with figures of 4/120 in 29 overs.

In the run-chase, openers Abdullah Shafique and Mohammad Rizwan struck 45 and 30 respectively while Babar was castled by Ollie Robinson for the second successive time for just one. Imam-ul-Haq mustered 60 but his and Shakeel’s efforts went in vain as the home side fell short by just 26 runs. England are on a roll under a new coach and captain as they have now won eight out of the nine Tests played under them. For his match-winning century, Brook grabbed the Player of the Match award.

Meanwhile, here are some of the important stats and numbers from the 2^nd Test between Pakistan and England:

103 – Jack Leach reached the landmark of 100 wickets in Test cricket. He became the 20th England spinner to achieve the feat.

13 – Abrar Ahmed became the 13th Pakistani bowler to pick a five-wicket haul in an innings on Test debut.

11/234 – Abrar registered the second-best match figures of 11/234 by a Pakistani on Test debut. Mohammad Zahid tops the chart for his figures of 11/130 against New Zealand in Rawalpindi in 1996.

8 – England have now won eight out of the nine Tests played under coach Brendon McCullum and full-time skipper Ben Stokes.

3 – Joe Root became the third player in the history of Test cricket to score 10,000 runs and pick 50 wickets. He has scored 10629 runs and snared 50 scalps in the Whites. Jacques Kallis (13289 runs and 292 wickets) and Steve Waugh (10927 runs and 92 wickets) are the other two players to grab the feat.

22 – England won their first Test series against Pakistan in Pakistan after 22 years. They lost 0-1 (3) when they last visited these shores in the year 2005.

107 – Ben Stokes is now joint-top with his current coach McCullum for hitting the most sixes (107) in the longest format of the game.

21 – The English side has now registered the most individual centuries (21) in a calendar year. They recorded 20 hundreds in Tests in the year 2004.

2014 – For the first time since 2014, all Pakistani spinners picked up ten wickets in an innings. Mohammad Hafeez, Zulfiqar Babar, and Yasir Shah shared ten scalps against Australia in Abu Dhabi eight years back.

180/5 – England smashed the most runs (180/5) before lunch on the first day of a Test match. They went past South Africa’s score of 179/1 against Australia in Johannesburg in the year 1902.

67.50 – Saud Shakeel has had a solid start to his Test career as he has scored 270 runs in just four innings at an average of 67.50 with three half-centuries.

3 – Abrar also recorded the third-best innings figures (7/114) for Pakistan on Test debut. Zahid took 7/66 against the Kiwis in 1996 and Mohammad Nazir grabbed seven wickets for 99 runs against the BlackCaps in Karachi in 1969.

5 – Pakistan is winless in their last five Test matches played at home. They drew two and now lost three games on the bounce (one against Australia and two against England).

1950 – Abrar became the first bowler since 1950 and fourth overall to pick five wickets in the opening session on Test debut. West Indies player Alf Valentine did it against England in Manchester 72 years back. The other two are Charlie Turner (six wickets) against England in 1887 and Fred Martin (five wickets) against Australia in 1890.

7 – Abrar took each of the first seven wickets to fall in England’s innings as he became just the second bowler to do so on Test debut. Valentine achieved the feat by picking up each of the first eight England wickets to fall in the first innings in 1950.