Only two overs were played in the final session on rain-hit Day 2 of the second Test between England and Pakistan at the Ageas Bowl in Southampton.
Despite losing most of the batting order cheaply, Babar Azam and Mohammad Rizwan’s gritty knocks helped Pakistan to reach 223/9 at Stumps on Friday.
However, soon after Babar departed at a personal score of 47 runs off 127 deliveries, England bowlers ran all over the touring tailenders and reduced Pakistan from 158/5 to 176/8.
England made quick work of the Pakistan tail after Babar’s dismissal by getting rid of Yasir Shah and Shaheen Afridi in quick succession. Rizwan, though, went on the counter after that helped his team past the 200-run mark.
Early Tea was taken after the umpires led the players off due to bad light. Broad managed to make a breakthrough in the first full over of the session with the wicket of Mohammad Abbas but at the end of that over, the umpires took the players off again due to bad light. They never came back and about two hours later, stumps was called.
Earlier, Rizwan and Babar had steadied the ship for Pakistan as their batsmen failed to get read on the England pacers on the first day. At the break, Babar was batting on 45 with wicketkeeper Mohammad Rizwan on 12 as the overnight pair hung on managing 29 runs in the truncated first session.
Rizwan starts on 60 on the third day with Pakistan’s no.11 Naseem Shah on one at the other end on Day 3.
Brief scores: Pakistan 223/9 (Mohammad Rizwan 60*, Babar Azam 47; James Anderson 3/48) vs England
With agency inputs