MULTAN
\nPakistan captain Shan Masood admitted England taught his team a \u201charsh reality\u201d on how to win a Test with their massive innings and 47-run victory in Multan on Friday.
\nEngland\u2019s attack made short work of the last four Pakistan batters on the fifth day, dismissing the hosts for 220 and drawing first blood in the three-match series.
\nEngland found a way to win despite Pakistan\u2019s first innings total of 556, responding with the fourth-highest Test score of 823-7 in response.
\nWith Pakistan\u2019s Abrar Ahmed not batting due to illness, England reduced the hosts to 220-9 after some early resistance as Jack Leach bagged the three wickets needed and sparked huge celebrations among a small but vocal group of travelling fans.
\nWhile the bowlers completed the job, it was a stupendous batting effort that set up the win after man-of-the-match Brook scored 317 and Root made 262 in a partnership that ground the hosts to dust.
\n\u201cIt can\u2019t be more disappointing than this,\u201d said Shan who has lost all six Tests since being appointed captain last year.
\n\u201cEngland taught us the harsh reality on how to find a way to win a Test match which we couldn\u2019t find,\u201d said Shan who scored a hundred to set up Pakistan\u2019s first innings.
\n\u201cAfter two days being under the sun and being 556 behind they gave themselves a chance to bat and scored big and when they came back with the ball they had a plan and they executed that well.\u201d
\nPakistan resumed on a precarious 152-6 and Salman Ali Agha was the first to depart in the morning after a defiant 63, with the introduction of Leach helping England snap his 109-run stand with Aamer Jamal.
\nEngland\u2019s pace bowlers peppered the two overnight batsmen with bouncers earlier and Aamer recovered after being hit on the side of the head by a fiery ball from Brydon Carse to bring up his own half-century.
\nHe was then granted a lifeline when Pope dropped a tough chance at square-leg \u2014 England\u2019s fifth dropped catch of the innings \u2014 and was not out on 55 when he ran out of partners.
\nLeach pulled off a stunning catch off his own bowling to remove Shaheen Shah Afridi, bef\u00adore having Naseem Shah stumped to finish with figures of 4-30.
\nEngland declared after their highest total in 86 years and extra\u00adcted the most from a lifeless pitch to rattle Pakistan on Thursday.
\nThe hosts flexed their muscles in the early part of the Test but found themselves under the gun, trailing England by 115 runs at the end of the fourth day and they eventually folded under pressure.
\nPakistan\u2019s tally was the joint third-highest first-innings total in a losing cause and marked the first time in more than 700 Tests in Asia that a team had lost after making 500-plus runs in the first innings.
\nShan said England proved themselves a quality side.
\n\u201cThe harsh reality in Test cricket is that no matter what the pitch is, quality sides will find a way and England did that and for us the learning is to find a way to win Tests,\u201d he noted.
\nShan said his bowlers had to learn how to take 20 wickets in a Test match.
\n\u201cThe trick for us is that we should learn, obviously, from England as well. They found ways to get those 20 wickets. You can\u2019t win Tests without picking up 20 wickets,\u201d he observed.
\n\u201cAs a team, we have that second innings of batting to improve but the most important thing is we must also learn how to pick 20 wickets.
\n\u201cSo that\u2019s the challenge the side has going forward.\u201d
\nPakistan\u2019s batting has been stumbling due to a slump for talisman Babar Azam, who has gone without a half-century in his last 18 Test innings.
\n\u201cThere is no doubt that Babar is Pakistan\u2019s best batsman,\u201d said Shan of Babar who scored a scratchy 30 and five in the match. \u201cYou always believe that your best batsman is just one innings away and we hope that he returns to form soon.\u201d
\nShan, who replaced Babar Azam as Test skipper in November said he would not shy away from respo\u00adnsibility in the wake of the big defeat.
\n\u201cWe have to get this right as a squad and as a cricket playing nation.\u201d
\nMeanwhile, spinner Abrar rem\u00adained doubtful for the second Test in Multan starting on Tuesday.
\n\u201cThe condition of Abrar is not good so we all pray that he recovers well and plays cricket again,\u201d said Shan.
\nThe third and final Test is in Raw\u00ada\u00adlpindi from October 24.
\nScoreboard
\nPAKISTAN (1st Innings) 556 (Shan Masood 151; Jack Leach 3-160)
\nENGLAND (1st Innings) 823-7 decl (H. Brook 317, J. Root 262; 2-101)
\nPAKISTAN (2nd Innings, overnight
\n152-6):
\nAbdullah Shafique b Woakes 0
\nSaim Ayub c Duckett b Carse 25
\nShan Masood c Crawley b Atkinson 11
\nBabar Azam c Smith b Atkinson 5
\nSaud Shakeel c Smith b Leach 29
\nMohammad Rizwan b Carse 10
\nSalman Ali Agha lbw Leach 63
\nAamir Jamal not out 55
\nShaheen Shah Afridi c & b Leach 10
\nNaseem Shah st Smith b Leach 6
\nEXTRAS (B-4, LB-1, NB-1) 6
\nTOTAL (all out, 54.5 overs) 220
\nFALL OF WICKETS: 1-0 (Abdullah), 2-29 (Shan), 3-41 (Babar), 4-41 (Saim), 5-59 (Rizwan), 6-82 (Saud), 7-191 (Salman), 8-214 (Shaheen), 9-220 (Naseem)
\nBOWLING: Woakes 12-1-41-1, Atkinson 14-2-46-2, Bashir 6-0-32-0, Carse 16-1-66-2 (1nb), Leach 6.5-1-30-4
\nRESULT: England won by an innings and
\n47 runs.
\nPLAYER-OF-THE-MATCH: Harry Brook<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
MULTAN Pakistan captain Shan Masood admitted England taught his team a \u201charsh reality\u201d on how to win a Test with their massive innings and 47-run victory in Multan on Friday. England\u2019s attack made short work of the last four Pakistan batters on the fifth day, dismissing the hosts for 220 and drawing first blood in …<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":71497,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-71487","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/nabanews.pk\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/71487","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/nabanews.pk\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/nabanews.pk\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nabanews.pk\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/4"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nabanews.pk\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=71487"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/nabanews.pk\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/71487\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":71502,"href":"https:\/\/nabanews.pk\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/71487\/revisions\/71502"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nabanews.pk\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/71497"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/nabanews.pk\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=71487"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nabanews.pk\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=71487"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nabanews.pk\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=71487"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}