Pakistan and England gamers shake palms on the fifth day of the primary Check at Multan Cricket Stadium on October 11, 2024. — Reuters
KARACHI: Effectively, the place do you begin? In what was imagined to be a gripping contest, Pakistan have managed to grab defeat from the jaws of not victory, however from a decent place — the place one would’ve anticipated them to maintain management of the sport, or at the very least keep away from the humiliation of a defeat by an innings.
England’s Multan triumph, by an innings and 47 runs, after Pakistan posted a mammoth 556 of their first innings, will depart cricket followers scratching their heads for years to come back.
It was a monumental meltdown, it was one such fictional story that you just share with your pals at a gathering over tea, they usually wouldn’t imagine you.
Think about this, you rating over 500 runs, you are imagined to be in a cushty place, crusing via easily to at the very least a draw, if not victory. However no, not in case you’re the Pakistani group who’ve now registered their title right into a fairly embarrassing a part of historical past by changing into the primary group to lose by an innings after placing up 556 of their first innings — let that sink in.
In a sport the place 500-plus runs ought to at the very least provide you with a move to remain aggressive, the nationwide aspect by some means managed to make a behavior of doing the unthinkable. This was the fifth time they’ve misplaced after posting 500 or extra, a document nobody desires to assert.
The Multan Check was a slow-motion crash that introduced again recollections of comparable cricketing disasters — Leeds 2006, Rawalpindi 2022, the Oval forfeiture in 2006, and sure Melbourne 1972, the place the Inexperienced Shirts declared at 574-8 and nonetheless discovered a solution to lose.
Nevertheless, the Multan defeat holds by itself and can hang-out me for some time.
England, then again, beneath Brendon McCullum, appear to be turning the unattainable into an entertaining efficiency to obtain a standing ovation. Although conceding 556 within the first innings, the guests then casually bowled out Pakistan for a second time, nicely, that is simply unbelievable.
Pakistan’s Mohammad Rizwan is bowled by England’s Brydon Carse on the fifth day of the primary Check at Multan Cricket Stadium on October 11, 2024. — Reuters
Through the Multan Check, the English aspect made Pakistan’s 556 seem like a mere pace bump and got here up with a mammoth 823-run complete — the very best ever conceded by Pakistan in Check cricket.
The bowlers, bless them, had been in all places. Six of them leaked over 100 runs every, a feat that is solely occurred second time in Check historical past.
The final bowling unit to show such generosity to batters was Zimbabwe’s of their match towards Sri Lanka.
If there was a silver lining, it was Shaheen Afridi’s single maiden over — a small victory, in a sea of woes because it was the one maiden over in innings that spanned 150 overs.
It was additionally the least variety of maiden overs bowled when a group has batted for at the very least 90 overs — together with when there have been eight deliveries per over.
The information continued to tumble, one after the opposite as England’s 823-run complete was the largest ever posted on Pakistani soil and surpassed even the house aspect’s 765 runs towards Sri Lanka again in 2009.
Effectively, additionally including to Pakistan’s woes is the truth that this was their sixth consecutive defeat in Check cricket, matching their longest shedding streak. It’s been a downhill spiral since 2022, with solely three wins out of 18 matches.
Pakistan gamers pictured through the first Check towards England on the Multan Cricket Stadium. — AFP/File
At residence, it is even worse — because the nationwide aspect has no wins of their final 11 matches which is actually their longest drought at residence for the reason that early 70s. This proud cricketing nation is crumbling, and the stats do not lie because the Males in Inexperienced are at the moment rubbing shoulders with Zimbabwe and Afghanistan on the backside of the win charts.
Effectively that hurts, and it ought to sting each Pakistan cricket fan as nicely.
Below Shan Masood’s captaincy, the story will get much more miserable with six losses in six matches making him part of an “elite” group of captains who began their tenure with six straight defeats.
The left-handed batter is just the fifth member of this membership and solely the second non-Bangladeshi after Zimbabwean Graeme Cremer.
And, what to say about Babar Azam? As soon as the blue-eyed boy of Pakistani cricket is rapidly turning right into a persona non grata, at the very least for the scoreboard. The previous skipper has been struggling too, and for a really, very very long time and not using a 50 in 18 innings. Many might have forgotten the final time he raised his bat to have a good time a milestone in Check cricket.
The opening pair of Abdullah Shafique and Saim Ayub have a median of two.87 runs — the bottom common in Check historical past for a gap partnership with at the very least eight innings. 4 of their eight stands have resulted in geese. It is like watching a sinking ship, one collapse after one other.
In the meantime, England are thriving. This was their third win since McCullum took cost the place they’ve conceded 550-plus runs. It is like they do not know how one can lose anymore. For Pakistan, nonetheless, it is the identical outdated story.
Even once they look in management, they discover a solution to chaos. The Multan Check wasn’t only a loss, it was a cry for assist. This is not only a unhealthy run of kind; it is the fruits of years of decline. And in case you suppose it could not worsen, nicely, it simply would possibly.
