England captain Ben Stokes believes wicketkeeper Ollie Pope grabbed a clear catch to dismiss Pakistan batter Saud Shakeel in his group’s series-deciding win within the second Take a look at on Monday.
“No doubt about that (catch) in my mind,” Stokes stated after Pakistan was bowled out for 328 an hour into the second session and fell 26 runs wanting the 355-run goal on the fourth day as England took an unassailable 2-0 lead within the three-match sequence.
“The only thing where you start worrying is when it gets looked at for a long period of time because that’s when you start having doubt in your own head,” Stokes added. “I’ve been part of games before where I’ve been on the team who’s been on the receiving end of those decisions and you’re always like, ‘that’s not carried.’”
Shakeel battled gallantly for simply over 5-1/2 hours in making 94 off 213 balls in opposition to the tempo and spin earlier than Mark Wooden tangled the lefthander down the legside simply earlier than the lunch interval and Pope claimed a low two-handed catch to his proper and decreased Pakistan to 291-7 by lunch.
Tv umpire Joel Wilson of the West Indies upheld onfield umpire Aleem Dar’s tender sign of out as he took a number of minutes and watched the replays from varied angles.
Shakeel’s dismissal took the sport away from Pakistan earlier than England folded the tail after lunch for its second absorbing win within the final two weeks.
“You see a lot of lot of those decisions and those type of catches in cricket,” Stokes stated. “It went our way, but I’ve been involved in a few decisions where stuff like that has gone against us, but you can’t change that.”
Pakistan captain Babar Azam believed the catch price his group the sport. He felt the ball was grounded earlier than it went into Pope’s gloves, however stated the groups must comply with the umpires’ choices.
England, on its first Take a look at tour to Pakistan in 17 years, has been on a roll via its aggressive model of cricket that began within the English summer time when it gained six of its seven Take a look at matches beneath the captaincy of Stokes and new coach Brendon McCullum.
Up to now England had gained solely two Take a look at matches in Pakistan – in 1959 and 2000 – however now has gained back-to-back Assessments in simply two weeks on difficult dry, flat and gradual turning wickets at Rawalpindi and Multan.
“I think it was another great game, completely different conditions to the first Test match,” Stokes stated. “We adapted to those conditions and stuck to the way that we wanted to operate. Last week obviously was a very flat wicket, whereas this one was a challenging one, but we still went out and applied ourselves the way that we wanted.”
England confirmed loads of aggression on a flat Rawalpindi wicket to win by 74 runs as its batters plundered 4 centuries in a world-record 506-4 on the opening day.
Wooden didn’t determine within the first Take a look at as he was nonetheless recovering from a hip damage, however the quick bowler bowled with loads of tempo and struck thrice as soon as Stokes took the second new ball with Pakistan nonetheless needing 109 runs.
Shakeel and Mohammad Nawaz, who made 45 off 62 balls, had raised Pakistan’s hopes of its highest-ever profitable run-chase at dwelling with an 80-run sixth-wicket stand earlier than Wooden dismissed each batters with similar quick balls down the legside.
“I’m pretty sure I wouldn’t want to be facing bouncers at 145-150 kph with 20 minutes left (for lunch) even if I had faced as many balls as those two,” Stokes stated. “That’s what we picked him (Wood) for, to come in, change the game and blow that wicket for us and it was an easy decision to make to bring him on.”
The third and ultimate Take a look at begins at Karachi from Saturday.
