After Pakistan’s ice-cold 556 in the first inning, England put on a humongous 823 runs on the board in the second innings of the first Test match. In return, the Pakistan team has faced another similar collapse as their fans were reminded of the humiliating batting fiascos against Bangladesh.
The Pakistanis are now five-wickets down after having scored only 76 runs, with all the big guns, including the two centurions from the first innings, as well as Babar and Rizwan back in the hut, without troubling the scorers much.
To this end, Twitter has erupted in mixed reviews over the sudden collapse:
“Pakistan are in a mood to produce result”, the most humiliating tweet that came from a supposed non-Pakistan supporting cricket fan who remarked mockingly that Pakistan is in a quest to produce a result in favour of their opponents England.
“Pakistan had a tough performance at Multan! Those scores suggest a significant batting collapse.” also said another fan who showed similar concern over Pakistan’s batting form.
“Also known as a normal day in Pakistan cricket,” some said that this is just another usual day for Pakistan cricket.
Others have shown that Pakistan players have been said to be lions made of paper, while some have criticized the way Babar Azam continues his bad form even on the best batting tracks in the nation.
After England’s historic 800-run inning, Pakistan’s innings scramble for stability amid batting collapse
After Joe Root’s iconic 262 and Harry Brook’s stunning second-fastest triple century in the history of Test cricket, England posted a huge 823 runs in their innings.
The Pakistan openers, Abdullah Shafique and Saim Ayub, came in to bat in the second inning, while the centurion from the first inning, Shafique, was cleanly bowled by the Woakes in the very first over of the inning.
The flow of wickets never seemed to stop, as the centurion from the 1st innings, Shan Masood, also got out after repetitive wickets from Gus Atkinson and Brydon Carse gave England the breakthrough they needed.
After Shafique, Ayub, and Masood, Babar Azam and Mohammad Rizwan also failed to perform, as half of the Pakistani side was back into the pavilion for a score of less than 50 runs.
However, since then, Saud Shakeel took guard of the innings alongside Salman Ali Agha until Jack Leach’s breakthrough helped them get another major breakthrough. Pakistan have now been reduced to 103/6 trailing by 267. For the first time in cricket history, if they lose, they could be the first team to lose by an inning after scoring a 500+ total in the 1st inning itself.
