England v Pakistan, 3rd Test, Day 1 – Zak Crawley digs in to his earned spot in the side with maiden Test hundred
A fighting knock of 76 in the first Test against the West Indies earlier this summer, and a mammoth debut hundred against Pakistan today. Zak Crawley has figured out; and more importantly, implemented the perfect measure to make the most of the opportunities presented to him, which is scoring heaps of runs at crucial junctures. The fact that he found a more than co-operative batting partner in Jos Buttler, who implemented something similar, albeit in a slightly more pressurized personal situation, helped England acquire a dominant position at the end of the first day.
Joe Root won the toss and elected to bat, citing the dry wicket on offer, despite a gloomy sky and a windy morning. He announced that Jofra Archer was back in the XI, replacing all-rounder Sam Curran. Pakistan went in unchanged from the previous Test.
Rory Burns’ horror run in this series continued, after he got out once again to Shaheen Afridi, nicking off to Shan Masood at fourth slip, who took a good, low catch.
Zak Crawley walked into the middle and immediately set the tone for the rest of the day. He was helped by a loosener on the pads from Afridi first ball, which was flicked to the mid-wicket fence. Although Afridi followed up with a yorker two balls later, Crawley did well to anticipate and get his bat down in time, squirting it through the slip cordon for four.
A good spell from the left-armer and Mohammad Abbas followed, to which Crawley and his partner, opening batsman Dominic Sibley were equal to. Azhar Ali then decided to take a gamble and bring on Yasir Shah, to test out the utility of the dryness of the wicket. The two batsmen approached him quite well, using their feet to counter the spin and ensuring that the leg-spinner requires changing his length frequently.
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Naseem Shah came on from the other end, and was treated with disdain by Crawley. Striving to bowl at breakneck pace, Naseem ended up spraying the ball all over the place, and the fielders had to fetch the balls from the boundary ropes on several occasions, courtesy Crawley’s bat.
The gamble of keeping the leg-spinner on finally paid off for Pakistan. Dominic Sibley, who has been circumspect against spin throughout his International career so far, misread a straight one from Yasir and was trapped in front, trying to skip down the pitch and play the flick across the line. Umpire Michael Gough was impeccable with his decision making, which Sibley found out the hard way, having cost his team a review.
The wicket of Sibley took some momentum out of the England innings for a while. Skipper Joe Root walked in and took his time to settle in. Crawley faced a mental test after the Pakistan quicks started to tighten up on their control over line and length yet again. He eventually got to his fifty on the last ball before lunch, having spent 20 balls on the score of 49.
After lunch, Naseem Shah bowled his best ball since morning, having being smacked by Root to the fence the previous delivery. Pitching the second delivery of the 36th over on the corridor of uncertainty, he got the ball to lift off the surface, catching a well-set Joe Root (yup, those three familiar words yet again) off guard and obtaining the nick from him, and Rizwan, who has been outstanding with the gloves all series, produced yet another bit of delightful glovework by flinging himself to his right and grasping it with both mitts.
Pakistan were well and truly back in the game three overs later, after Yasir cleaned up Ollie Pope with yet another straighter one, as the Chelsea-born lad looked to play from his crease. The Pakistan camp went into delirium after the wicket, having taken out almost the entire middle order.
Pakistan had England on the ropes at one stage, reducing them to 127/4
The word ‘almost’ used in the previous sentence proved to be fatally inadequate for Pakistan eventually. Jos Buttler walked in and began in his typically positive approach, scoring at almost a run-a-ball to begin with. Zak Crawley, too, took a leaf out of Buttler’s book, as the loose deliveries started to slip out from the Pakistan bowlers. A review was wasted on a caught behind half-appeal against Buttler, as replays showed clear daylight between bat and ball.
Crawley brought up his maiden Test hundred in the first over after tea, punching the last ball of the over from Abbas through cover for two. He then decided to shift gears as Buttler decided to maintain an unusually sedate approach.
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The fact that Crawley was the one taking on the bowling and not him did not sit well with the Somerset born-and-bred batter-keeper eventually, who had spent 37 deliveries in the 20s. Yasir Shah, who had kept him tied up since being brought back into the attack after tea, saw the ball sail miles over his head and land on and beyond the sightscreen twice in the space of three balls.
Buttler ended the over by disdainfully dispatching him through long-off for four. He brought up his half-century, his second in the series, off the same bowler four overs later, picking up a couple to deep square leg.
There was absolutely no stopping the duo after that. Crawley, having brought up his 150, tucked into the Pakistan bowlers once again, most of whose inexperience had been on display for pretty much the entire day, barring the odd good spell. Buttler helped himself as well and raced to 87 by the end of the day, bringing up the 200-run partnership in the process. England ended the day well and truly on the chauffer’s chair, with 332 runs on the board for the loss of 4 wickets.
“Absolutely buzzing having scored my first hundred today. It was a great feeling, one of true elation, and hopefully get many more to come. Hopefully get a nice, big score tomorrow and hopefully see Jos through his hundred as well, that’d be nice.” ~ Zak Crawley after the end of the first day’s play.
Brief scores:
Close of play, day 1
Pakistan 332/4 (90 Overs)
Crawley 171*, Buttler 87*, Yasir 2/107