Noman Ali and Sajid Khan shared all 20 England wickets among them as Pakistan marched to their first Test match win at home since February 2021 as England crumbled to 144 all out in 33.3 overs while chasing the 297-run target on day four here at the Multan Cricket Stadium on Friday.
Noman finished with innings figures of 8-46, the second-best figures on Pakistan soil after Abdul Qadir’s 9-56 against the same opposition in Lahore in 1987, and match figures of 11-147. Fellow spinner Sajid Khan bagged nine wickets in the match to help bowl Pakistan to a 152-run series-levelling victory in the second Test.
The match figures of 20-351 of Noman and Sajid is the only third instance that Pakistan spinners have taken all 20 wickets after the Lahore Test vs England in 1987 and Faisalabad Test vs the West Indies in 1980.
On day four, Pakistan took the remaining eight England wickets, as Sajid picked one and Noman plucked seven, for 108 runs taking just 22.3 overs to bowl them out.
Earlier in the morning, requiring 261 more runs for victory, England resumed their innings at 36-2 in 11 overs with Ollie Pope and Joe Root on the crease.
Sajid lured Pope (22, 38b, 2x4s) to chip one straight in his hands in the second over of the day. Noman then trapped Joe Root (18, 34b, 1×4) and Harry Brook (16, 21b, 1×4) leg-before wicket in the 16th and 20th overs, respectively, leaving England five down for 78 runs.
Jamie Smith (6, 10b, 1×4) skied one to Shan Masood towards mid-on while captain Ben Stokes tried to battle with the tail. Stokes was the top scorer for England with 37 off 36 balls with the help of four fours, and was outfoxed by Noman as Mohammad Rizwan stumped him in the 28th over.
Brydon Carse struck three sixes in 32-ball 27-run outing before being caught in the slip. Jack Leach and Shoaib Bashir were dismissed on back-to-back deliveries to hand England a 152-run defeat.
The third and final Test match of the series will begin on 24 October at the Rawalpindi Cricket Stadium with the first ball expected to be bowled at 10am PKT.
Scores in brief
Second Test – Day 4 of 5 – Pakistan beat England by 152 runs
Pakistan 366 all out, (Kamran Ghulam 118, Saim Ayub 77, Mohammad Rizwan 41, Aamir Jamal 37, Noman Ali 32, Salman Ali Agha 31; Jack Leach 4-114, Brydon Carse 3-50, Matthew Potts 2-66) and 221 all out, 59.2 overs (Salman Ali Agha 63, Saud Shakeel 31, Kamran Ghulam 26; Shoaib Bashir 4-66, Jack Leach 3-67, Brydon Carse 2-29)
England 291 all out, 67.2 overs (Ben Duckett 114, Joe Root 34, Ollie Pope 29, Zak Crawley 27, Jack Leach 25 not out; Sajid Khan 7-111, Noman Ali 3-101) & 144 all out, 33.3 overs (Ben Stokes 37, Brydon Carse 27, Ollie Pope 22; Noman Ali 8-46, Sajid Khan 2-93)
