Buttler and Crawley’s stand was the joint sixth highest partnership of all time for England in Test cricket. England are leading the series 1-0.
Jos Buttler (L) and Zak Crawley. (Photo: Twitter/@ICC)
England batsmen Zak Crawley and Jos Butter almost batted Pakistan out of the game before James Anderson ran through the touring top-order batsmen on the second day of the third Test at the Ageas Bowl in Southampton on Saturday. Pakistan ended the day’s play at 24/3.
Resuming the day’s play at 332/4, the duo of Crawley and Buttler successfully dealt the first session of the day. The former was denied a chance of scoring his first triple century as he was dismissed for 267.
Crawley, who has been in the middle since the first session of the first day of the match, was finally dismissed by part-timer Asad Shafiq, getting stumped down the leg side. He walked off to applause from the Pakistan fielders and his teammates in the dressing room who were also up on their feet.
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Buttler, who had made 152 off 311 deliveries, and Crawley’s stand was the joint sixth highest partnership of all time for England in Test cricket. England are leading the series 1-0 and are looking to secure a first win at home against Pakistan since 2010.
After Buttler and Crawley’s epic 359-run stand, Chris Woakes, Dom Bess and Stuart Broad put up a combined 53 runs before England captain Joe Root declared the innings at 583/8.
The English attack, especially Anderson, then made sure that Pakistan’s misery doesn’t die out as he finished the day with the figures of 3/13 in his six overs of bowling.
Shan Masood was the first to go, falling to James Anderson yet again after making just 4. Masood’s opening partner Abid Ali was then caught in the slips in Anderson’s very next over after which captain Azhar Ali and Babar Azam stuck around nervously for some time.
Just as it started to look like the pair may have seen themselves through to the end of the day, Anderson trapped Babar plumb in front of the stumps.
Brief scores: England 583/9d (Crawley267, Buttler 152; Fawad Alam 2/46) vs Pakistan 24/3 (Babar 11, Azhar 4*; Anderson 3/13)
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