Pakistan opener Abid Ali is confident about his country not losing the third Test against England at the Ageas Bowl in Southampton. Abid’s gritty knock of 42 off 162 balls provided Pakistan with a fighting chance on rain-hit Day 4.
“It was very difficult out there. This is one of the great bowling attacks, and I always like to challenge myself,” ESPNcricinfo quoted Abid as saying.
“Unfortunately, I couldn’t deliver really big innings, but I tried to keep improving my game. I was prepared; I just knew I needed to get settled on the crease and things would get easier. I was trying to bat time, as long as possible,” he added.
Abid further gave insights about Pakistan’s mentality and how they set small targets among each other to make the task easier. He said that his job was “to see off the new ball”.
“My job is to see off the new ball. That was the team requirement, and I fulfilled that role. Mentally, my target was to bat time and make it easier for the batsmen lower down. That worked today, and we set small targets,” said Abid.
“Things like, ‘let’s bat out the next hour’, and so on. The weather helped us, but I was fully focused on doing what the side required,” he added.
Meanwhile, James Anderson on Monday grabbed his 599th Test wicket as England continued to remain on top of Pakistan at Stumps of Day 4. Still trailing by 210 runs in the second innings, Pakistan ended the day’s play at 100/2.
In his bid to become the first pacer to take 600 Test wickets, Anderson had trapped Abid for an LBW before bad light forced England captain to restore to spin for the rest of the day’s play. The play was soon abandoned within a few overs due to rain.
“We’ve had a good day, and our plans worked. The weather isn’t in our hands, but we are fully prepared to play positive cricket and save the Test match,” Abid stated.