Problems for the Pakistan team continue during their visit to England. In the third match of the series, played at Edgbaston in Birmingham, Pakistan's attack once again crumbled. The match started on Wednesday, September 9th. England won, dismissing the visiting team in just 33.5 overs for 133 runs.
After England won the toss and opted for bowling, the quick English side quickly confirmed the captain Joe Root's decision was correct. Pakistan began losing batsmen from the first overs. Sam Ayub remained scoreless, Azan Aways scored 9, and Abdullah Shafique managed only 3 runs. Shan Masood could only score 5 runs. As a result, Pakistan lost four batsmen in the first 10 overs, with the score at 26 runs for the loss of four wickets.
There was hope that captain Babar Azam could stabilize the game, but he also failed, scoring only 7 runs and falling into the trap of Josh Tongue. After Babar's dismissal, Pakistan's score reached 48 runs for five wickets down.
Only Saud Shakeel managed to hold the defense for Pakistan for some time. He played a knock of 43 balls, scoring 43 runs, including 7 fours. However, he could not find adequate support from the other end of the pitch. Gazi Gori scored 4, Mohammad Imran scored 5, and Rajaulah scored 11 runs. Saud Shakeel himself was dismissed by Josh Tongue for 43 runs.
In the end, Mohammad Abbas helped the team cross the 100-run mark, scoring 21 runs, but Pakistan's total innings concluded at 133 runs. Mohammad Ali remained not out, scoring 5 runs. Pakistan also added 20 extras, including 6 byes and 14 leg byes.
Tongue caused a storm, Robinson-Archer also undermined the defense
Josh Tongue was the most dangerous player in the England lineup. He took 4 wickets, conceding 42 runs in 10 overs, including one maiden over. Ollie Robinson took 3 wickets, conceding 15 runs in 11 overs; this was a special moment for him as he completed 100 wickets in test matches. Jofra Archer also added 3 wickets, conceding 25 runs in 7.5 overs.
Why did the old record remain untouched?
This Pakistan innings of 33.5 overs against England is the third shortest innings in the history of Pakistan vs. England Test matches. Two shorter innings occurred in 2010. In Nottingham, Pakistan was dismissed for 80 runs in 29 overs, and in the same year at Lord's, the team was destroyed for 74 runs in 33 overs. Since Pakistan lasted until 33.5 overs in Birmingham, the old record of 16 years was not broken.
Thus, although Pakistan scored 133 runs in this match, its batsmen also set another unfortunate statistic: it became the shortest innings for Pakistan in this series. The top 5 performances were the weakest, as none of Pakistan's top five batsmen could cross the ten-run mark. Sam Ayub scored 0, Azan Aways scored 9, Abdullah Shafique scored 3, Shan Masood scored 5, and Babar Azam scored 7. In total, only 24 runs were scored by the top 5. This represented a very poor performance by Pakistan in the first innings in England.
After Pakistan was reduced to 133 runs, England's start was not perfect either. They lost three batsmen before reaching 39 runs. However, Emilio Ge scored 60, and Harry Brook remained not out with 52 runs, allowing them to stabilize the innings. By the end of the day, England had scored 156 runs for 4 wickets lost in 39 overs, gaining an advantage of 23 runs over Pakistan in the first innings. Pakistan had already lost the first two Tests of the series, and if their play in Edgbaston remains the same, avoiding a clean sweep against England will be a serious problem for them.