Skipper Shan Masood savours special win soaked in sweat and blood

27 October, 2024

Coming from an innings defeat in the series opener, Pakistan levelled the series in Multan before arriving in Rawalpindi where they rolled out a raging turner.

For Pakistan, spin twins Noman Ali and Sajid Khan claimed 19 of the 20 English wickets to secure a nine-wicket win that also secured their 2-1 series victory.

Expanding on the win, Masood said: "Like London buses, they come together. The first win came after a long time and it was backed up by a series win. It's special."

After losing the opener, Pakistan took a bold selection call by dropping three frontline players — batter Babar Azam and the pace duo of Naseem Shah and Shaheen Afridi.

Sajid and Noman were brought in and the duo claimed 39 of the 40 English wickets in the last two Tests, apart from producing useful cameos with the bat, to vindicate the move.

Sajid cut his chin while batting on Friday and had to change his bloodied shirt but returned on Saturday to spin a web around the English batters.

"For everyone to stand up and give their best means a lot," said Shan, who sealed Pakistan's victory with a six off England spinner Shoaib Bashir.

"It is about characters, people you can trust, people you think can bleed for you — Sajid literally bled for us yesterday.

"To be here and standing as the winning team is the most special thing for us," he remarked.

England folded for a meagre 112 in their second innings with only Joe Root (33) looking comfortable against the hosts' rampaging spinners.

Their usual tactics of swashbuckling batting have looked somewhat one-dimensional and inadequate on turning tracks and against in-form spinners.

"The last couple of Tests we've been thrown some challenges, and I think it's pretty easy to assess that were weren't able to stand up to those challenges," said England captain Ben Stokes while reflecting on their loss.

"The great thing about sport is that those challenges will always come along, but in the last two games, we weren't able to match what Pakistan threw at us.

"We've got a very quick turnaround to another challenge in New Zealand, so we've got to put the disappointment of the last two games behind us and move on," he said.