England v Pakistan, 3rd Test, Day 5 – Pakistan salvage 13 points as Anderson enters elite 600 club
Pakistan salvaged 13 vital points out of the third Test match, courtesy a fine half-century from Babar Azam, helped by some resistance from Asad Shafiq, on a day which saw James Anderson become the first fast bowler to enter the 600 Test wickets club.
Showers early in the morning, and subsequently, a wet outfield took two sessions of play out, leaving the two sides with 42 overs for the day. Jofra Archer opened the bowling for the day, partnered by the man of the moment from the other end. Due to the fact that the pitch seemed to flatten out, the job for the two overnight batsmen, Azhar Ali and Babar Azam seemed to ease up compared to the first innings.
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That was, until, the moment for which the entire Cricketing fraternity was waiting for with bated breath arrived. James Anderson, in his third over, banged the 33,717th ball of his career on back of a length and got the ball to leap on Azhar Ali, who did his best to keep it under control by trying to adjust to the extra bounce, but failed. The ball took the outside edge and thankfully, an England fielder, Joe Root, the sole slip fielder in this case, managed to hold on. Although a capacity crowd was dearly missed for this auspicious occasion, Anderson did hold the ball high with a beaming smile on his face to acknowledge the applause from the gallery.
James Anderson – The first fast bowler to reach the 600 wickets landmark
Asad Shafiq walked in to accompany Babar Azam in batting through the end of the Test match. He saw the rapid spell from Jofra Archer off, the spells from Anderson and Broad, while Babar Azam at the other end started to blaze away, being his natural, stroke playing self.
Babar particularly took into the off-spin of Dom Bess, and then the part-time off-breaks from Joe Root, as he found the boundary on 8 occasions overall with his elegant cover drives and square cuts. He got to his 14th Test fifty with a nudge behind square for one off Root.
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The very next ball, Root struck by removing Asad Shafiq with a sub-continent like dismissal. The England captain got the ball to turn and bounce, beat Asad Shafiq on the forward defence, taking an inside edge, and substitute fielder James Bracey at forward short leg took a sharp catch.
The wicket prompted Root to bring back his premium fast bowling pair of Anderson and Broad to trigger a Pakistani batting collapse. But it was too good to be true. After Babar and new batsman Fawad Alam played out 3 overs from the duo, it was decided that both teams would share the spoils for this Test match. England won a series marred and tarnished by the typically irritating English weather 1-0, their first series win over Pakistan since 2010.
Brief Scores:
England 1st Innings 583/8dec (154.4 Overs)
Crawley 267, Buttler 152, Fawad Alam 2/46
Pakistan 1st Innings 273 all out (93 Overs)
Azhar Ali 141*, Mohammad Rizwan 53, Anderson 5/56
Pakistan 2nd Innings 187/4 (83.1 Overs)
Babar 63*, Abid Ali 42, Anderson 2/45
Match drawn, England win the Test Series 1-0
Total points: England 66-26 Pakistan
Player of The Match: Zak Crawley
Player of The Series: Mohammad Rizwan (Pakistan) & Jos Buttler (England)