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Louise Thomas
Editor
Brydon Carse collected his first Test wicket as England fought to check Pakistan’s progress on the second morning in Multan.
Centuries from Abdullah Shafique and Shan Masood saw the hosts dominate day one but three wickets in the evening session and the arrival of the second new ball had raised hopes of a fightback.
At lunch on the second day Pakistan had moved to 397 for six, still in the box seat but less emphatically than they had been at 261 for one on the first evening.
Saud Shakeel kept English enthusiasm at bay with a patient 67 not out but Carse’s dismissal of nightwatcher Naseem Shah and Jack Leach’s removal of Mohammed Rizwan for a duck evened things out.
England were frustrated in their initial attempts, early bursts from Chris Woakes and Gus Atkinson generating nothing more dramatic than a blow to Naseem’s helmet, while there was no real turn to excite Shoaib Bashir or Leach.
A frustrating stand of 64 between Shakeel and Shah was controlled and becalmed for the most part, cranking into life occasionally when the latter decided to use his feet against the spinners.
Three times he skipped down the pitch and deposited the ball down the ground for six, each stroke painful for a side who had banked on making short work of him.
Shakeel moved to fifty with a neat sweep off Bashir but was perhaps a little too composed against opponents who might have folded in the face of greater aggression.
As a result, the scoreboard had not totally got away from England when Carse, in his 19th over on debut, finally opened his account.
He set out to spring a trap and reeled Naseem in, targeting the hip and seeing the ball flicked to Harry Brook at leg-slip.
His celebration betrayed a touch of weariness, with the Durham quick having expended plenty of energy maintaining a brisk pace, but it opened a door.
It was Rizwan who tumbled through it, wasting the platform with a 12-ball duck that ended with a wayward flash at Leach that lobbed up to mid-off.
