Pakistan v England: first men’s cricket Test, day one – as it happened

Simon Burnton’s report from Multan is live, which means time’s up and that’s the end of the show. We’ll be back at 5.30am tomorrow morning; see you then.

England Women play South Africa this afternoon in a big game at the T20 World Cup. You can follow that with Adam Collins.

England’s spin-bowling coach Jeetan Patel talks to Sky Sports

That was a day of solid toil. Pretty proud of the boys to put in the stint they did in the final session. You need energy from your teammates and the guys put in a helluva stint in the field.

To have them six down would have been amazing, but taking three wickets in the last session really sets us up for the morning.

[What’s it being in the field on a day like that?] You go through every plan you’ve got, every idea, but you keep getting overwhelmed by the weather and the heat. You have to dig deeper and deeper and deeper and I think the boys did that.

The way Chris Woakes got Babar Azam was high-class bowling, moving one away and then bringing it back. But when you’re that knackered, and your shirt is saturated, and you’re dripping with sweat, it’s a fine art.

The pitch didn’t spin as much as we thought it would. It’s challenging because you have one eye on not giving them too many boundaries and the other eye on taking wickets. We kept catchers in but we also had sweepers, almost as a cuddle so that they could go about their work.

We always talk about the scoreboard and putting two wickets on it. If we can put two on it – maybe three with the nightwatchman – and they’re 350 for 7… We’ll see what happens, you can’t judge the pitch until both teams have batted on it.

Abdullah Shafique, who made a classy 102, speaks to Sky Sports

I’m feeling happy because performing for your team is a next-level feeling. I tried to focus on the process (rather than the outcome). When a senior batter like Shan Masood is playing so well it helps me a lot, and it’s a chance for me to learn by watching him as well.

Thanks Tim, hello again. It’s not often that 328 for 4 represents a reasonable day, but England will feel quite upbeat as they leave the field – especially as Babar Azam took the same walk off a few minutes earlier.

85th over: Pakistan 328-4 (Shakeel 35, Naseem Shah 0) Pope, who has looked more like a captain as the day has gone on, turns to Brydon Carse for the last over. That almost works too as there’s an LBW shout against Shakeel, but there was bat involved. Shakeel retorts with a whip for four and that is that. England have done well to fight back from 260-1, but the day belongs to Shan Masood and Abdullah Shafique, the two centurions.

And I have a plane to catch, so Rob is generously reappearing. Thanks for your company and correspondence.

84th over: Pakistan 324-4 (Shakeel 31, Naseem Shah 0) So the new ball does the trick, Babar’s run of under-50 scores continues, and Woakes begins to repay the selectors’ faith by taking his first Test wicket on Pakistan soil. When Naseem comes out as a nightwatchman, Woakes beats him twice outside off.

Woakes digs deep, beats Babar outside off with a beauty, then raps him on the pad and persuades Kumar Dharmasena to raise the finger. Babar reviews but the three reds are all in a row. Where does Woakes think he is, Edgbaston?

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84th over: Pakistan 324-3 (Babar 30, Shakeel 31) Babar drives Atkinson for three. Shakeel cuts hard and gets only a single, as Pope takes a painful blow on the hand but manages to take the pace off the ball. The TV director concentrates on the sunset, a fried egg writ large.

83rd over: Pakistan 319-3 (Babar 26, Shakeel 30) It’s not Leach, it’s Woakes. He finds enough movement away from the left handed Shakeel to draw a thick edge, but it never looked like going to hand. And Shakeel responds with a rasping cut for four.

82nd over: Pakistan 315-3 (Babar 26, Shakeel 26) Shakeel breaks the shackles! He drives Atkinson’s first delivery for an effortless three, and then Babar follows suit with a four to bring up the fifty partnership – 52 off 113 balls, a throwback to the old school.

Atkinson rallies, finds some lift, tries a yorker, but Babar stands firm. The commentators remind us that, on England’s last tour of Pakistan in 2022, Stokes gave the new ball to Leach.

81st over: Pakistan 308-3 (Babar 22, Shakeel 23) Another over of spin, another single for Saud Shakeel. And the new ball is being taken!

80th over: Pakistan 307-3 (Babar 22, Shakeel 22) Just a single off Leach’s over too. Not only do both batters have 22, but they’ve both taken 55 balls to get there. Could they both get hundreds? They could, though the new ball should have something to say. England may not take it tonight, given the weary limbs of the seamers – though this spell from the spinners suggests that Pope is keeping his options open.

79th over: Pakistan 306-3 (Babar 22, Shakeel 21) Just a single off Bashir’s over. You know those moments when the game of cricket goes to sleep? This is one of them.

“So, where has this Pakistan performance been hiding?!” asks Em Jackson. “This is good stuff from them (although, as the cliché goes, can you tell a pitch until both sides have batted on it?).” That’s not a cliché, it’s one of the eternal verités.

”Secondly, whilst The Hundred may have been good for the women’s game – but we will need to see if England lift the World Cup to know a bit more about the health of the short-form game for England’s women – how many Hundred listeners who were were there when Ben Stokes was injured will be listening to/watching this Test match, do we think?

”England should never have to rely on one player, but losing one’s captain for first Test of an away Test series (especially for the Hundred), seems careless at the very least!

“Em Jackson, nr Newcastle, basking in Durham remaining in D1 & Glos winning some silverware this year.” Impressive geographic spread there, Em.

78th over: Pakistan 305-3 (Babar 22, Shakeel 20) Leach continues, yeoman that he is. Shakeel goes back to the sweep, reversing for two.

77th over: Pakistan 302-3 (Babar 22, Shakeel 17) Bashir, bowling to Babar, gets that maiden. He’s been much more parsimonious in this spell (5-2-10-1). Pakistan’s run rate, which was racing along at 4.7 when Masood was at the wheel, has now slowed to 3.9. And there’s a new ball looming if Ollie Pope fancies it.

76th over: Pakistan 302-3 (Babar 22, Shakeel 17) Babar brings up the 300 with a push into the covers off Leach. Shakeel, feeling tied down after making only three off 32 balls, goes down the track and doesn’t quite get to the pitch, but improvises well with a chip for two.

75th over: Pakistan 299-3 (Babar 21, Shakeel 15) Bashir beats Shakeel with a beauty, his second-best ball of the day. Dip, turn, everything but the edge. Bashir puts his hands on his head and so does Root at slip.

74th over: Pakistan 298-3 (Babar 20, Shakeel 15) Carse, like Woakes, is taken off after two overs, so maybe this is a policy to save the quicks from sheer exhaustion. Leach returns, bearing dots, not letting Shakeel play his sweeps. A caption shows that Leach has offered a little less turn than the other two spinners. Yes, but far more control.

73rd over: Pakistan 298-3 (Babar 20, Shakeel 15) Babar, still a bit itchy, goes down the track to Bashir, who tries to fire the ball down the leg side. It’s not wide enough and Babar adjusts smoothly to flick it over midwicket for four.

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72nd over: Pakistan 293-3 (Babar 16, Shakeel 14) Carse continues and the batters remember that singles are an option too. The sun is still out, but the shadows of the floodlight pylons are paler now – and so long that they stretch right across the field.

71st over: Pakistan 290-3 (Babar 15, Shakeel 12) Bashir, eyeing another maiden, manages five dots to Babar. And then he gets cut for four, with a hint of imperiousness.

70th over: Pakistan 286-3 (Babar 11, Shakeel 12) Woakes is taken off after only two overs, for reasons I can’t work out, but it makes little difference as Brydon Carse keeps up the pressure with a maiden. Off the last ten overs, Pakistan have scored only 25-2 – and half of those runs came in one over from Leach, when Shakeel played those three sweeps.

Meanwhile, back home, Surrey have decided they haven’t got enough seamers.

69th over: Pakistan 286-3 (Babar 11, Shakeel 12) Leach takes a well-earned breather and hands over to Bashir, who capitalises on his fine fielding by bowling his first maiden of the day. The only run is a bye as Jamie Smith misses a take down the leg side. And that’s drinks, with England winning the last hour by dismissing both the centurions.

68th over: Pakistan 285-3 (Babar 11, Shakeel 12) Babar wants to get on with it. He cuts Woakes, hard, beating the man at short cover but not the man at deep cover, Bashir, who makes a fine stop. Next he goes down the track, only to find he can’t reach the pitch and has to defend. Then he stays put and plays a flashing drive – straight to Bashir again. Woakes picks up his first maiden and, nice guy that he is, he will be giving some of the credit to Bashir’s vigilance and Ollie Pope’s canny field setting.

67th over: Pakistan 285-3 (Babar 11, Shakeel 12) Babar cuts Leach for four, playing it late, showing his class. There are still 23 overs left in the day, in theory, so the extra half-hour will be needed. If England wilt in the heat, Pakistan may well get the chance to push on towards 400.

66th over: Pakistan 280-3 (Babar 6, Shakeel 12) Atkinson gets a breather after his success and Woakes returns. He is thriftier than he was earlier, keeping Shakeel quiet after allowing Babar a single.

“Pakistan were talking the Bazball talk before the game,” wrote Steve Hudson, before those two wickets, “and they are now very much walking the walk.

“There are a surprising number of England fans who hate (not too strong a word) Bazball, on the grounds that it is undignified, unscientific, simplistic slogging, and is therefore just not Test cricket as they know it.

“But clearly other Test teams see this differently. Will it take the experience of England losing a series to the kind of positive, attacking cricket that they hate, to make them think there is merit in it?” Good question.

65th over: Pakistan 279-3 (Babar 5, Shakeel 12) Shakeel, facing Leach, has only one thing in mind: sweeping all before him. He opens his account with a crisp sweep for four, then reaches even further forward to sweep for four more. And then a reverse for four more! The counter-attack is on.

64th over: Pakistan 267-3 (Babar 5, Saud Shakeel 0) With two new arrivals at the crease, even on a road, the batting is uneasy. Babar is a great player going through a lean patch: his Test average since the beginning of last year is only 21, with not a single fifty. He shows why that might be by shaping to cut Atkinson and inside-edging for a jammy four.

63rd over: Pakistan 263-3 (Babar 1, Saud Shakeel 0) Masood may now be wishing he had retired. He shaped to off-drive into a gap but got too much bottom hand into it and gave a low return catch, coolly taken by Leach. In this spell, 9-2-20-1, he has quietly reclaimed his place as England’s senior spinner.

One brings two!

62nd over: Pakistan 263-2 (Masood 151, Babar 1) Babar, facing Atkinson, tries to get off the mark with one of his dreamy drives, only to be foiled by a sharp stop at mid-off. Then there’s a full toss which he tucks away. He sets off fast, seeing a two, but Masood can only limp a single. I wonder if he was thinking of retiring hurt until Shafique got out.

61st over: Pakistan 261-2 (Masood 150, Babar Azam 0) You wait hours for a maiden from a spinner, then two come at once. Leach, the only miser in this attack, now has 14-2-37-0, and he should probably get a sliver of the credit for that wicket.

60th over: Pakistan 261-2 (Masood 150, Babar Azam 0) Even in this heat, Gus Atkinson’s golden arm is still working. He went full and wide, found a smidgen of away-swing and drew Shafique into a loose drive. So Mushtaq Mohammad and Zaheer Abbas hang onto their record, which has now stood for 53 years.

The breakthrough!

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A gentle pull for a single takes Shan Masood to 150. He has slowed down since reaching 100 but has still got there in 165 balls. He was under pressure before this; he’s not any more.

59th over: Pakistan 260-1 (Shafique 102, Masood 149) Leach bowls a maiden! With a little help from these injuries. It’s the fourth of the day and the first by a spinner.

58th over: Pakistan 260-1 (Shafique 102, Masood 149) Shafique, facing Carse, plays a checked hook for a single to bring up the 250 partnership, only the fourth in Pakistan’s history for the second wicket. Carse draws a false shot from him with another bouncer, a top edge that lands safely in the long-stop zone.

England’s best hope of a breakthrough is a retired hurt, as Shafique is now hobbling too. “Basically,” says Gower, “it’s two good legs between them.”

57th over: Pakistan 256-1 (Shafique 100, Masood 147) Masood toys with his opposite number by reverse-sweeping Leach for four. But it seems to give him some grief himself, causing a bout of cramp.

56th over: Pakistan 251-1 (Shafique 100, Masood 141) Carse is bowling to a packed offside field, and Masood still manages to slash for four. The only whiff of a wicket is a faint one as Shafique fences at a lifter and Jamie Smith takes the ball down the leg side, but there’s not even a token appeal.

55th over: Pakistan 246-1 (Shafique 100, Masood 137) Abdullah Shafique is facing Jack Leach, biding his time, waiting for … a ball to swing for a straight six! That’s a handsome way to reach a hundred. It’s come off 165 balls with ten fours and two sixes, the other one being the stroke that took him to fifty.

“It was at Multan,” says Krish Krishnamoorthy, “that Virendra Sehwag scored his triple century. This match is meandering to a draw unless England commit some harakiri. At this rate a few centuries by English bowlers are on the cards too.” True! Bashir could get there in his next spell: he’s gone for 59 off 11 overs.

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54th over: Pakistan 239-1 (Shafique 94, Masood 136) It’s time for Brydon Carse, who, as Root said before the match, knows how to grab a wicket out of nowhere. He almost gets one now, luring Masood into a loose cut that goes straight to Pope at point. He gets his fingers to it but not under it as it dies on him. Masood, naturally, responds with a two, driven in the same direction.

“To be fair,” says Steve Cox, “Zain’s description is exactly how I imagine Edgbaston, with a few more rowdy drunks thrown in.”

53rd over: Pakistan 236-1 (Shafique 94, Masood 133) Leach continues after tea and springs a surprise with his first ball, an airy yorker that beats Masood and inches past the off stump. “I do believe he’s tossed one up!” says David Gower. Masood, unruffled, plays a leg glance to maintain his policy of getting ’em in twos.

The weather forecast appears on the screen – 34 and sunny. At the same time, an email comes in from Liam Crowley. “Is Zain honestly suggesting nobody ever complains about the weather in Britain?” Ha.

“Even before lunch on the first day,” says Jordan White, “everyone was up in arms about how poor England’s chances are, their bowling attack isn’t what it used to be, valid points about why Anderson is off playing golf etc etc. I do love watching English fans and journalists pile on their own team so quickly, not in a schadenfreude way but because it usually seems to me to be completely over the top.

“I could be wrong but I have a feeling that Brook, Root, Smith et al on this pitch could check in for a few days and notch up a few double tons. It’s not a sure thing but the massive pessimism is based on about the same level of gut feeling... Maybe I should spend less time on Twitter.” Join the club!

“You can’t help but chuckle,” says Zain Malik, “at how Multan is framed in the English press. A land so distant and scorching it might as well be Mars, just with more camels and donkey carts. It’s as if the English reporters expect a Lawrence of Arabia remake every time they step off the plane.

“Now, flip the script: imagine Pakistani media describing Edgbaston as a gloomy wasteland of perpetual rain, grey skies, and… street crime. ‘Locals seen preparing for another monsoon of drizzle; donkey carts swapped for Vauxhalls, no improvement noted.’

”Yes, it’s hot in Multan. Yes, Woakes is turning a shade of cherry red not seen outside of an actual cherry, but come on do you hear anyone complaining about how miserable visiting teams feel under England’s fifty shades of grey? The world is made of different climates, and if you’re playing cricket, you have to learn to deal. Today it’s heatstroke in Multan, tomorrow it’s trench foot in Manchester.”

52nd over: Pakistan 233-1 (Shafique 94, Masood 130) Shafique looked as if he was shutting up shop before tea, but now, facing Root, he sweeps for four and punches for two. And that’s tea, with Pakistan lording it. After making 122-1 in the morning session, they’ve added 111-0 in the afternoon. The pitch is so flat that they could make 700.

For England, only only Gus Atkinson has a wicket, and that seems to have come several weeks ago.

51st over: Pakistan 227-1 (Shafique 88, Masood 130) “Just once,” says one of the commentators, “I’d like to see Leach try a moon ball.” Leach mysteriously fails to comply, but he does manage another near-maiden.

50th over: Pakistan 226-1 (Shafique 87, Masood 130) Tidy enough from Root. England have managed to seal off the boundary, conceding no fours since that controlled edge by Shafique off Woakes seven overs ago. But only one ball, that ripper from Bashir, has carried any threat.

“Nice visors England,” says Paul Sokhy. “Where’s the next wicket coming from?” At a wild guess, Harry Brook’s medium-pace filth.

49th over: Pakistan 222-1 (Shafique 86, Masood 127) Leach does well, tying Masood down for five balls, beating the bat with two of them but finding the pad rather than thin air.

If you’ve never sent an email to the OBO, now would be a good time to start.

48th over: Pakistan 221-1 (Shafique 86, Masood 126) There’s a change at the other end too, as Woakes goes back to the deep to wonder why he isn’t putting his feet up back in Brum. On comes Joe Root, who, according to the ICC ratings, is the fourth-best all-rounder in Test cricket. Not many people would agree with that, least of all Root himself, but he’s well worth a go. He makes a respectable start, finding some flight, but Masood marches on. He has time for another hundred today.

47th over: Pakistan 217-1 (Shafique 84, Masood 124) Pope makes a change at the spin end, replacing Shoaib Bashir with Uncle Jack Leach, who’s been the most frugal of England’s bowlers. He reels off three dots before allowing three singles.

46th over: Pakistan 214-1 (Shafique 82, Masood 123) Another over from Woakes, another pair of twos for Masood. The ring of four Under-10 fielders is now a ring of five – three silly mid-offs, two silly mid-ons. And no silly shots.

45th over: Pakistan 209-1 (Shafique 81, Masood 119) A gentle cut for a single from Masood lifts this stand to 200, Pakistan’s best for the second wicket against England since 1971 (my Mushtaq and my Zaheer long ago). Masood and Shafique have done it off only 40.4 overs, showing flair as well as grit: one of them hadn’t made a Test hundred for ages, the other had been struggling to reach five.

44th over: Pakistan 207-1 (Shafique 80, Masood 118) You know those edges Chris Woakes finds at will in England? Well, he’s just got one here. But Shafique controlled it well, steering it past the spot where, in England, second slip’s right boot would be. Woakes has 10-0-48-0: a decent shift in an ODI.

43rd over: Pakistan 202-1 (Shafique 76, Masood 117) We have a review! Masood tried to sweep Bashir and the ball looped up to Ben Duckett at leg slip. England leave the decision. late and the third umpire confirms that there was no bat. “It was sent upstairs,” says Mike Atherton, “with absolutely no conviction by Ollie Pope.” Harsh but fair: in his four Tests as captain Pope has been a consistently hopeless reviewer.

42nd over: Pakistan 199-1 (Shafique 75, Masood 115) Still no joy for Woakes as Masood helps himself to a couple of twos and a single.