Bazball was given a major reality check as England stumbled to a massive 152-run loss against Pakistan in the second Test of the three-match series in Multan. After winning the first Test, England were looking to wrap up the series, but Pakistan spinners Noman Ali and Sajid Khan had different plans. The spin duo combined forces to take 20 wickets to help Pakistan level the three-match series. This is Pakistan’s first Test win at home in three years. They have also snapped their winless 11-match streak in the longest format at home.
England kept losing wickets at regular intervals but there was hope till the time captain Ben Stokes was there at the crease. However, a comedy of errors resulted in Stokes’ dismissal. The left-handed batter departed after scoring 37 runs off 36 balls.
In the 28th over, Stokes decided to come down the track to slog over midwicket. The flighted ball spun through the gap between the bat and pad. Stokes ended up missing the ball completely, and he also lost his bat in the process as well. Mohammad Rizwan, in the end, completed an easy stumping.
After his dismissal, Stokes stood at the crease in disbelief. Slowly and steadily, he made his way back to the dressing room. The Pakistan Cricket Board (PCB) shared Stokes’ dismissalon social media.
Stokes apologises to team after emotions better of him
After the end of the match, Ben Stokes also revealed that he apologised to his team for letting the emotions get better of him on the third day of the Test match. For the unversed, England dropped quite a few chances on Day 3, and this irritated the hell out of Stokes.
“It just proves how important catches are in these sub-continent conditions because they don’t come along that often. I actually apologised to the group up there last night. It is the first time in my captaincy that I have let my emotions power through me when the game is unfolding. I am very annoyed at myself for letting it out. I apologised to the group,” Ben Stokes told Sky Cricket after the loss against Pakistan.
While speaking to the host broadcaster, Stokes said, “No, not at all. If you look throughout the Test match, the guys who had success from our side and Pakistan’s side were the ones who put the spin bowlers under pressure. Ben Duckett’s first innings hundred showed us the way. The sweep shots made it very difficult to control the run-rate and set fields to. When you get extreme conditions like that, you got to find a way to negate that spin which we managed to do in some good parts, but we’d have liked to go on, especially myself and a couple of guys who got starts.”
Talking about dropping Agha Salman twice in the second innings, Stokes said, “I don’t like to live by hindsight. It just proves how important taking the chances are out here. You don’t get them very often behind the wickets. You take those chances, the game might look a little different. In conditions like these, spinners will get spoken about a lot. Matthew Potts and Brydon Carse kept charging in spell after spell, ball after ball and created so much atmosphere when the spinners needed a break.”
Pakistan and England will now play in the series decider, beginning October 24.
