Rejoice among the English side! Wow, England, this is a triumph for the ages! The Pakistani partnership towards the end of their innings gave it their all, but England earned this victory. From the very beginning, they excelled. Everything about this team—their batting, the bowlers’ work, the choices they made, and Stokes’ leadership—was outstanding. All of his moves and choices were superb. It was a gamble to declare, but Stokes had faith in his bowlers and they came through for him when it counted.
In a word, incredible quality all the way from the UK. They were so determined to succeed that even the most innocuous proposals had a positive outcome. They declared anyway in the hopes of getting 10 wickets in the remaining time. And the last wicket fell with hardly any time left on the clock. What an exciting match it was in Rawalpindi, what a tragedy for the huge Pakistani crowd that showed up, and what a thrill for England and Stokes, who deserves a lot of the credit.
What an incredible Test match at Rawalpindi, one to save for Bazz & Stokes – took the risk of declaring early and fought so hard on a flat pitch then took 10 wickets in 96.3 overs.
It would be an understatement to suggest that England had an optimistic outlook going into this Test. The visitors never looked back after scoring 14 runs in the opening over on day one. Led by its four century-scorers (Crawley, Duckett, Pope, and Brook), the team scored 506 runs on the first day of the match, shattering every record imaginable. Then, their bowlers persisted without any support, just eking out a 78-run advantage. England batted at a rate of over 8 runs per over in their second innings before making a courageous declaration. The remaining 343 seemed like a somewhat weak target for Pakistan.
Pakistan Playing XI: Abdullah Shafique, Imam-ul-Haq, Azhar Ali, Babar Azam (c), Saud Shakeel, Mohammad Rizwan (wk), Agha Salman, Naseem Shah, Haris Rauf, Mohammad Ali, Zahid Mahmood
England Playing XI: Zak Crawley, Ben Duckett, Ollie Pope (wk), Joe Root, Harry Brook, Ben Stokes (c), Liam Livingstone, Will Jacks, Jack Leach, Ollie Robinson, James Anderson
Twitter Reacts:
BAZ-BALL IS HERE TO STAY 🏏
Well played END-ISTAN https://t.co/HfW7qdRv1pAdvertisement— Parag D Thombarre (@paragd15) December 5, 2022
Let's laugh at Pakistan. Can't even defeat ENG – C team in their backyard. 🤣🤣🤣🤣 https://t.co/qQYtIrVuvx
— N∩⋊∩⊥ (@SuvTK7) December 5, 2022
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We are coming for you WTC.
Forgive my over – excitement.
I desperately needed this win. https://t.co/rQyWRmce0lAdvertisement— Devangi Joshi (@Devangi_J) December 5, 2022
But zimbabar ne century maar li. Baki team jaye bhaad mein🤣. https://t.co/oU0HcBZygf
— Yuvraj (@yuvraj2511) December 5, 2022
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Told this before and telling it now too
Pakistan is a great t20I team
Mediocre odi team
And a below average test team . https://t.co/kda8YJWtcZAdvertisement— •7^18• (@84off48) December 5, 2022
Stokes – Bazz performance in Tests:
Won
Won
Won
Won
Lost
Won
Won
Won pic.twitter.com/jDQFTKzcMuAdvertisement— Johns. (@CricCrazyJohns) December 5, 2022
