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Evening Standard
Evening Standard
Sport
Cameron Ponsonby

Abrar Ahmed enjoys dream Pakistan debut with five-wicket haul to leave England reeling

Test matches are now played at 100mph. Runs and wickets were aplenty on the first morning in Multan, as England reached the break at 180-5. Ben Duckett and Ollie Pope each registered half-centuries, but the star of the show was Pakistan’s debutant Abrar Ahmed, who claimed all five wickets in a riveting session of cricket.

Any fears of a delayed start due to smog were immediately allayed as a bright morning with only a touch of haze greeted the players in central Punjab. Ben Stokes won the toss and having joked yesterday that he hoped to lose it, opted for a bat.

Pakistan’s Babar Azam failed to hide his disappointment, stating that he “definitely” would have batted had he been given the choice. The opening half-hour of the day looked somewhat like a normal Test match. Two Pakistan seamers bowling with a hint of movement available and England, by their own standards at least, watchful.

But that would change with the introduction of spin and Pakistan’s 24-year-old debutant Ahmed. A leg-spinner with a touch of mystery about him, Ahmed has been one of the leading bowlers in Pakistan’s domestic cricket this season and his omission from the first Test had been a major talking point in local circles. And it took him only five balls to prove why, as he delivered a pearler of a googly to Zak Crawley who was bowled for 19.

In the past, England away tours and mystery spin has been a fatal combination for the visiting side, but any suggestion that England would back down in the face of their new opponent vanished as Ollie Pope reverse swept his first ball against Ahmed for four. A shot that would then dominate the next hour of proceedings.

Celebrations: Pakistan’s debutant spinner Abrar Ahmed claimed five wickets in the first session (AP)

England’s strategy would not be without risk, and both Ben Duckett and Pope would survive being given out sweeping on review, but the shot would guide both batters to half-centuries off 40 and 52 balls respectively. But just as England seemed to be racing away, the session would become that of Ahmed’s.

First, he would claim the wicket of Duckett who finally fell to his trusted sweepshot, trapped LBW, before he achieved the vital dismissal of Joe Root with a classical legbreak that pitched on leg and beat the outside edge of Root’s bat and struck him on the back pad. Pakistan, and Abrar’s celebrations in particular, were wild. England left on 145-3.

At that point, the session appeared to be ending as a score draw, but Ahmed was far from finished. Just as Duckett did before him, so too would Pope live and die by the sweep. His reverse finding the hands of backward point.

And Pakistan’s advantage would be confirmed as Ahmed claimed his fifth in a dream debut. Harry Brook skying to mid-off where he was caught by Mohammad Nawaz. Ahmed had bowled 13 overs in his first session of Test cricket, conceded 70 runs and taken five wickets.

On a wicket that already looks far better than that played on last week, it looks set to be a riveting contest between the two sides.

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