Crawley leads England reply after Salman hundred sets up Pakistan

England

England 96 for 1 (Crawley 64*, Root 32*) trail Pakistan 556 (Masood 151, Salman 104*, Shafique 102, Shakeel 82, Leach 3-160) by 460 runs

Salman Agha became Pakistan’s third centurion to cement their dominant position in Multan, before a chaotic interlude in which England lost Ben Duckett to injury and their captain, Ollie Pope, for a golden duck left the touring side scrabbling for a foothold in the first match of the series.
Duckett suffered a painful-looking blow to his left thumb taking the catch to dismiss Pakistan’s last man Abrar Ahmed – who had been given two lives in the previous two overs – meaning that when England began their innings midway through the evening session, it was with Pope walking out alongside Zak Crawley. Pope only lasted two balls, Aamer Jamal plucking a one-handed screamer at midwicket to further galvanise Pakistan and bring Joe Root, England’s designated No. 4, to the middle in the second over.

The riposte, as it often does, came from Crawley, back in the side after missing the Sri Lanka series with a broken finger. He slashed his sixth ball, from Shaheen Afridi, to the boundary and did the same to Naseem in the following over, before taking Afridi for a brace of fours to end the seamer’s opening spell. That led to the early introduction of spin – and another statement of intent from Crawley, as Abrar’s first over went for 11.

Crawley brought up England’s 50 in the 11th, hauling Abrar for through midwicket for another boundary, and he continued to go after Pakistan’s legspinner, who claimed 11 wickets as a debutant on the same ground against England two years ago. Two more fours down the ground left Abrar with opening figures of 4-0-31-0, before a ninth boundary, clipped through midwicket off Naseem, took Crawley to a 55-ball half-century.

Beyond a trio of optimistic lbw appeals, there was little to encourage Pakistan’s attack – as had been the case for England – with Root slipstreaming Crawley to the close in an unbroken partnership worth 92.

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