Abdul Jabbar Faisal
RAWALPINDI: Debuted Zahid Mehmood and Haris Rauf got each one wicket for Pakistan, as England reached at 235 for 2 in 36 overs here at Pindi Cricket Stadium on Thursday.
Earlier, in the morning English skipper Ben Stoke won the coin’s battle and decided to bat first at a dry pitch of Pindi ground. Zak Crawley and Ben Duckett showed full aggression and plundered 174 runs in just 27 overs at lunch break. Both batters hit excellent strokes and were on the wicket with 91 and 77 runs respectively hit 17 and 11 boundaries too.
After the lunch break, Zak completed his feisty ton in 86 balls studded with 19 boundaries, as he was judged LBW by umpire Ahsan Raza on the bowling of Naseem Shah, as TV umpire Marais Erasmus asked him to change his decision, as the ball was going down the leg-side and was missing the stump.
England batters completed 200 total in the 30th over of the innings, as Zak contributed 106 while his partner scored 88 runs. No one Pakistan bowler could make any trouble for the batsmen, who smashed four all around the ground.
Ben Duckett reached on his hundred in 106 balls including 14 fours in the 34th over of the inning, as the total was 331.
Finally, debuted Zahid Mehood succeeded to get a wicket for Pakistan when Ben Deckett effort to play reverse-sweep and umpire Joel Wilson declared him not out on a big shout for LBW, as on review he had to change his decision in the favour of bowler. He scored 107 runs in 110 balls with the help of 15 boundaries. Both aggressive batters collected 233 runs for the first wicket and provided a solid start to their team in the first Test clash of the three-match series.
Zak Crawley was 2nd batter to go back in the pavilion at 235, when pacer Haris Rauf clattered his stumps in 37th over of the English innings. Zaka scored 122 runs in 111 balls and smashed 21 fours.
Summarized Scorecard (Day-1):
Toss: England won and decided to bat
England (Batting):
Zak Crawley (122 runs, balls 111, 4x2, 6x0), Ben Duckett (107 runs, 110 balls, 4x15, 6X0)
Pakistan Bowling:
Zahid Mehmood
Haris Rauf
Pakistan (Playing XIs):
Babar Azam (c), Mohammad Rizwan (vice-captain & WK), Abdullah Shafique, Azhar Ali, Haris Rauf, Imam-ul-Haq, Mohammad Ali, Naseem Shah, Salman Ali Agha, Saud Shakeel, Zahid Mehmood
England (Playing XIs):
Ben Stokes (c), Joe Root, James Anderson, Harry Brook, Zak Crawley, Ben Duckett, Will Jacks, Jack Leach, Liam Livingstone, Ollie Pope, Ollie Robinson
Schedule of Tests:
9-13 December – 2nd Test, Multan
17-21 December – 3rd Test, Karachi
