Jos Buttler and Chris Woakes 139-run partnership took the game away from Pakistan as Azhar Ali’s men smashed a slightly low target to be added up in the pre-existing lead.
Pakistan went wonderful in their first innings but the batting collapsed in second innings. After managing 326 runs on the opening day of Test one at Old Trafford, England’s bowlers got dominant in Pakistan’s second innings grabbing all on 169.
The side was not looking much efficient and the low score diminished the confidence level of the players and deprived the virtual fans of expectations until Yasir Shah added his 33 to make the score looking decent. On the slow pitch, it could not have been an easy chase for England as they trailed by 277 runs but Buttler and Woakes’s classic partnership snatched the game from their hands.
Ben Stokes, England’s wicket-keeping middle-order batsman, believed it could have been his last test match after a little horrific performance behind the stumps. However, he feels lucky after he added 75 of 101 runs to snatch the game from Pakistan.
Jos Buttler feared the first match against Pakistan would have been the last of his Test career
“I’m quite proud, if I take those chances, we’d have won two hours ago,” Buttler told reporters.
“I’m very aware I didn’t keep well, I missed some chances and at this level, you can’t afford to do that, no matter how many runs you score.”
“Thoughts go through your head that if I don’t score any runs, I’ve maybe played my last game. But you have to shut those out and go and play your game.”
“We tried to break it down into a bit of a one-day chase, and scored at four an over, to take the second new ball out of the equation,” said Buttler.
“We got some nice momentum going and had a good partnership.”
Also, see:
Azhar Ali: You cannot blame captaincy every time, England deserves credit
2 Comments