Noman Ali spins Pakistan to first home test win since 2021 to level the 3-test series against England at 1 test apiece.
Noman Ali takes 8 wickets as Pakistan finally get the long-awaited home test win.
For Pakistan, it took a while to arrive at the decision, but it happened quickly. Pakistan secured their first victory in a home Test since 2021 when Noman Ali and Sajid Khan combined for the second time throughout the game to bowl out England. In less than two hours, eight wickets fell as England was destroyed by a barrage of reverse and sweep sweeps.
Noman finished the game with 8 for 46 and 11 for 147, claiming seven of them alone. They became the first duo to take all 20 wickets in a Test since Bob Massie and Dennis Lillee in 1972, with Sajid taking the remaining two wickets after taking 7 for 111 in the opening innings.
The series is even at 1-1 ahead of the third Test in Rawalpindi thanks to a devastating result that was attained in just three and a half days on a repurposed surface that Pakistan had believed would aid their spinners. In addition, it gave Shan Masood his first win as captain following a horrifying run of six straight losses.
After three days for a rapid warm up, this was the ninth day of play for the Multan pitch, which by this point was providing regular turn. It was day four of the second Test. Ollie Pope and Joe Root, the not-out batsmen for England, had been rehearsing their sweeps before to the game, and it soon became apparent what their offensive strategy would be in their quest to add 261 more runs to win.
But Pope was the first wicket to fall, playing hardly any angry shots before shoving Sajid’s second delivery right back into the bowler’s hands. As Harry Brook made an attempt to sweep his opening ball, Root followed suit, drawing battle lines.
Not that England benefited much from such a clear objective. Barely a week had passed since Root and Brook had put up a fourth-wicket stand on this ground that was record-breaking, yet there had been a noticeable change in poise and control. Root faced eight balls and tried to sweep nearly all of them before getting hit on the hip and declared leg before wicket (LBW), a ruling that was later verified by an umpire’s review.
Although Brook managed to reverse the ball once to the boundary, his frenzied approach proved to be short-lived as he returned to his 21st delivery, where Noman delivered from round the wicket, only for the ball to stay a little low and end up pinned in front of leg stump swinging across the line. With England at 78 for 5, the game was all but over and the top order returned to the dressing room.
Shortly after hitting Noman for four with the same shot, Jamie Smith top-edged a slog sweep to mid-on three balls, bringing the score to 88 for 6. The most successful player, Ben Stokes, reached 37 runs in less time than it took to run a ball before Noman enticed him down the pitch. Stokes hardly ever played a straight-bat stroke.
Apart from a short heroics by Brydon Carse, who avoided being declared leg before wicket by Sajid by using the DRS, that was pretty much it. He then hit the offspinner for three enormous sixes before Noman’s cunning caused another swipe and a thin edge to drop. After Noman removed Jack Leach and Shoaib Bashir with consecutive deliveries in his following over, Pakistan’s improvised Multan strategy was successful.