Pakistan captain Shan Masood hit four consecutive boundaries off Jack Leach, took a single off the last ball to retain strike and then hit Shoaib Bashir’s first ball of the next over for a six. An unbeaten 23 off 6 balls and that was it. Pakistan had beaten England by 9 wickets in the third and final Test in Rawalpindi to win the three-match series 2-1. This was Pakistan’s first series win at home in nearly four years. Their first series win against England since 2015. This was only the second time Pakistan won a three-match Test series after losing the first Test after their win against Zimbabwe in 1995.
In many ways, captain Shan Masood’s authoritative finish to the Test summed up Pakistan’s dominance. After losing the first Test in a road-like pitch, they took some tough calls and turned to spin. England had no answers to Pakistan’s three-pronged spin attack. So effective were Noman Ali, Sajid Khan, and Zahid Mahmood that for the first time in Pakistan’s cricket history, there was not a single over bowled by a fast bowler in an entire Test match.
Noman and Sajid knocked over all 10 England wickets to dismiss the visitors for 112 before Pakistan raced to victory in Rawalpindi before lunch on day three of the third Test.
Noman finished with 6-42 and Sajid 4-69 in an irrepressible spin bowling display after England resumed the third day on a precarious 24-3, with their innings capitulating in 37.2 overs.
England won the first Test by an innings and 47 runs while Pakistan took the second by 152 runs, both in Multan.
Pakistan lost opener Saim Ayub for eight but Masood’s six-ball 23 not out ended the match.
The Pakistan captain had lost his previous two series in charge — 3-0 to Australia and 2-0 to Bangladesh — since being appointed last year.
Noman and Sajid show
Noman and Sajid were brought into the line-up after England destroyed the hosts in the first Test in Multan by an innings and 47 runs.
The duo have knocked over 39 wickets between them in the subsequent two Tests, turning what looked like an easy England series victory Pakistan’s way.
Joe Root top-scored with 33 while none of the other England batters could last long enough to stop Pakistan’s charge towards a first home series win since beating South Africa in February 2021.
England’s previous lowest total was 130 in Lahore in 1987.
England’s fate was sealed once Noman dismissed overnight batsman Harry Brook caught behind by Mohammad Rizwan for 26 and skipper Ben Stokes leg-before for three.
Stokes once again fell in bizarre fashion as he offered no stroke to a Noman delivery, expecting it to go down the leg side but it struck him in front of the stumps.
England skipper, who missed the first Test with a hamstring injury, managed just 53 runs in four innings.
Sajid made it 6-75, dismissing Jamie Smith who tried to hit him out of the ground only to miss the ball and lose his stumps for three.
Noman completed his sixth five-wicket haul when Root edged a sharp turning delivery to Rizwan, quashing all hopes of an England fightback.
Sajid dismissed Rehan Ahmed for seven while Noman wrapped up the innings with the wicket of Jack Leach, bowled for ten.
