MULTAN, 12 Dec: Pakistan captain Babar Azam conceded his players couldn\u2019t combine well as a unit against England as the visitors sealed the three-match series with a thrilling 26-run win in the second test on Monday.
\n\u201cWe got plenty of opportunities to win, but we couldn\u2019t grab it as a team,\u201d Babar said after England bowled out Pakistan for 328 to win inside four days. \u201cToday we also had an opportunity, but we couldn\u2019t finish it. Our main bowlers got unfit and it cost us, but that\u2019s not the excuse because I believe as a team we didn\u2019t play well.\u201d
\nPakistan, already without injured Shaheen Afridi for the series, got two major blows when fast bowler Haris Rauf pulled his thigh muscle during the first test defeat at Rawalpindi last week and then Naseem Shah was also ruled out on the eve of the second test because of niggle in his shoulder.
\nFast bowler Mark Wood, who didn\u2019t play in the first test, led the relentless pace of England with 4-65 to dash Pakistan\u2019s hopes on a slow turning wicket where the England bowlers used the reverse swing with perfection.
\nEngland always came back strongly after it set Pakistan a challenging target of 355 in more than eight sessions before finishing off the game an hour into the lunch on Day Four.
\nLefthanded Saud Shakeel (94) scored his third successive half century of the series and featured in two productive partnerships with Imam-ul-Haq (60) and Mohammad Nawaz (45). England broke the century-stand between Imam and Shakeel late on the third day to raise England\u2019s hopes.
\nWood then struck two crucial blows when he ended the 80-run stand between Shakeel and Nawaz when he dismissed both batters off his two overs with the second new ball.
\n\u201cIn test matches you need experience, how your players perform in pressure situations,\u201d Babar said. \u201cWe were in the game and had partnerships going, but we lost back-to-back set batsmen (Nawaz and Saud), then the tail came and unfortunately we couldn\u2019t finish the game.\u201d
\nBabar had to push himself up to No. 3 from his usual No. 4 batting slot after he dropped his experienced test batter Azhar Ali because of a lack of form. The Pakistan skipper made 75 in the first innings, but once he was dismissed on Day Two, Pakistan lost seven wickets in the space of 37 runs and conceded a 79-run lead.
\nOllie Robinson undid Babar for only 1 with a brilliant inswinger as the Pakistan captain tried to leave the ball only to see his off stump getting knocked over.
\n\u201cWe had a number of soft dismissals (in the first innings),\u201d Babar said. \u201cThere were few good balls, but our batters could have done differently to the deliveries on which they got out.
\n\u201cEvery player has to step up in different conditions. As a professional you have to play in more worse conditions than this and perform.\u201d
\nBabar praised debutant mystery spinner Abrar Ahmed for his match haul of 11-234 as the bespectacled 24-year-old claimed the first seven England wickets in the first innings before adding four more to his tally in the second innings.
\n\u201cAbrar changed the game in the first innings and had a dream start to his test cricket,\u201d Babar said. \u201cAs a captain you are happy when a youngster earns you wickets.\u201d (AP)<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
MULTAN, 12 Dec: Pakistan captain Babar Azam conceded his players couldn\u2019t combine well as a unit against England as the visitors sealed the three-match series with a thrilling 26-run win in the second test on Monday. \u201cWe got plenty of opportunities to win, but we couldn\u2019t grab it as a team,\u201d Babar said after England […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[10],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-206840","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","6":"category-sports"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/arunachaltimes.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/206840","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/arunachaltimes.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/arunachaltimes.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/arunachaltimes.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/arunachaltimes.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=206840"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/arunachaltimes.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/206840\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/arunachaltimes.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=206840"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/arunachaltimes.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=206840"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/arunachaltimes.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=206840"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}