Salman Agha hit a half-century to thwart England’s comeback on Tuesday as Pakistan reached 515-8 at tea on the second day of the opening Test in Multan. The 30-year-old along with 13-year-old Shaheen Shah Afridi were unbeaten on 79 as England took two wickets each in the two sessions. Chris Woakes caught the ball behind the boundary and was saved by senior spinner Jack Leach as he let the ball fall to the ground. However, the third referee deemed the player’s foot to have touched the ground on the other side of the rope and awarded 6 points. The senior scored a fifty in the eighth Test, hitting 10 fours and two sixes, and crossed the 1000-run mark in the 15th Test. The senior added a valuable 57 runs for the seventh wicket with Saud Shakeel bowled for 82 by Joe Root following Shoaib Bashir’s mistake. Shakeel hit eight fours.
Pace bowler Brydon Carse gave debut figures after catching Aamer Jamal for seven before lunch. Harry Brook made 33 off Naseem Shah and Shakeel added his first Test wicket -4, Shakeel and Shah scored 64 and England’s bowlers kept things interesting for the first time. 69 points in the session. Fast bowler Gus Atkinson had 2-99, including the wicket of Muhammad Rizwan, and spinner Jack Leach 2-136 before lunch, while Woakes and Bashir took a wicket each.
