ENG becomes the first to beat PAK at home!

After winning the third and final match in Karachi on Tuesday by eight wickets, England became the first Test team to sweep Pakistan 3-0. England comfortably chased a target of 167 to add to their victories in Rawalpindi and Multan after restricting Pakistan to 216 in the second innings.

Before Abrar Ahmed trapped Zak Crawley lbw, Ben Duckett (82 not out) and Zak Crawley (41) put together an 87-run opening partnership to give England a strong start.

During the morning session of day four, England all-rounder Rehan Ahmed, who was moved up to number three, made 10 runs before the leg spinner lost his off-stump. However, a 73-run partnership between captain Ben Stokes and Duckett secured the victory.

Ben Duckett and Ben Stokes went unbeaten with scores of 82 and 35, respectively, as England resumed with a score of 112-2 and reached their modest 167-run target in just 38 minutes.

By 74 runs in Rawalpindi, England won the first Test, and by 26 runs in Multan, England won the second. This was Britain’s most memorable Test visit through Pakistan beginning around 2005, having not visited the South Asian country in the years since as a result of safety concerns.

On the fourth day, Duckett scored his 12th boundary off fast bowler Mohammad Wasim to secure England’s victory, who finished on 170-2. With only 19 required for victory, Agha Salman dropped Stokes off spinner Abrar Ahmed with the English captain on 22.

https://twitter.com/AkshatOM10/status/1605063193600331776

England’s “Bazball” approach to Test cricket, named after coach Brendon McCullum’s nickname, has paid off with nine victories in their last ten matches.

In May, McCullum and Stokes took charge of a poor team that had only won one of their previous 17 Tests, including a 4-0 defeat in the Ashes in Australia. England began the Pakistan tour with explosive cricket, scoring 506-4 to set a record for the most runs scored by a team on the first day of a Test.

That day, four batters—Zak Crawley, Ollie Pope, Harry Brook, and Duckett—set a new record by scoring hundreds. In addition, Stokes was courageous as captain, setting Pakistan a tantalizing 343-run target in Rawalpindi and using unusual fields to take wickets.

With Shaheen Shah Afridi out of the series with a knee injury, Pakistan’s problems were made worse by their fast bowlers.

Due to fitness issues, Haris Rauf and Naseem Shah missed the last two Tests. However, Pakistan’s batting collapsed significantly, losing their final six wickets for 108 in Karachi’s first innings and seven for 52 in the second.

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After losing to Australia in Lahore in March, Pakistan has now lost four consecutive home Tests, including Tuesday’s defeat.