MULTAN, Pakistan (Reuters) – Pakistan lost set batter Saim Ayub just before the tea break en route to 173 for three on the opening day of the second test against England on Tuesday.
Kamran Ghulam, who combined with Saim in a 149-run stand for the third wicket, was batting on 75 in his debut test, while Saud Shakeel was on four at the other end at the Multan Cricket Ground.
Pakistan captain Shan Masood won the toss but was soon ruing his decision to bat first as the hosts slumped to 19-2 inside 40 minutes.
After five overs of seam bowling, England captain Ben Stokes opted for spin from both ends and the decision paid off immediately.
Jack Leach beat Abdullah Shafique’s tentative prod and uprooted the off-stump to dismiss the opener for seven.
In his next over the left-arm spinner dismissed Shan for three, getting the Pakistan skipper to flick a delivery from outside the off-stump into the hand of Zak Crawley at short mid-wicket.
With Pakistan in trouble, Kamran walked in for his first test but the right-hander showed no nerves as he stepped out against Leach hitting the spinner over his head for a big six.
The duo returned after the lunch break to consolidate Pakistan’s position and Kamran took a single off Shoaib Bashir to bring up his maiden test fifty.
Keen to break the stand, Stokes brought himself on and proved quite a handful with his swing and awkward bounce though a wicket eluded the seamer.
Stokes maintained an attacking field, however, and Saim eventually fell into the trap, pushing a ball from Matthew Potts straight into the hand of the England captain at short mid-off.
Saim’s 77 contained seven fours.
England were bolstered by the return of Stokes, who missed their comprehensive victory in the opening test at the same venue to complete his recovery from a hamstring injury.
Stung by the innings defeat, Pakistan have dropped out-of-form batter Babar Azam and frontline pacers Shaheen Afridi and Naseem Shah.
(Reporting by Amlan Chakraborty in New Delhi; editing by Peter Rutherford and Ken Ferris)
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