Rizwan’s 50 gets Pakistan through 200 at the end of 2nd day of Pakistan vs. England Series 2020. Wicket Keeper Muhammad Rizwan’s unbeaten 50 holds England for another day.
The bad lighting on 2nd day of the test match brought an early end of the day. Rizwan’s smashing match guided Pakistan to cross the 200 marks.
This was Muhammad Rizwan’s 2nd fifty out of 8 test matches he has played. First, fifty being against Australia last November in Brisbane.
Undoubtedly, Pakistan had seemingly closed under 200 if Rizwan had left the team in the lurch. But through Muhammad Abbas’ support, before he was declared lbw by Stuart Broad, Rizwan was able to make it through till the end of the day.
In a series being played around closed doors due to covid-19 impact, there was no angry crowd in the stadium when there was a 10 minutes halt of the match due to bad lighting to avoid the players being exposed to the danger of injury, as they were before the break.
Babar Azam appeared for around 3 hours in the ground with an unfortunately missed 50, after mishandling a full-length delivery and ending up with a catch in WC’s hands.
Moreover, Yasir Shah, who had given a tough time and nearly frustrated England during the 1st test, was also caught behind while playing a high ticket shot. With his wicket, Anderson also claimed to have been the first pacer with 600 test wickets.
Overall, the match is in an interesting phase and day-3 is yet to start. This is utmost important for Pakistan to hold the ground for couple of hours to turn the winds into their favor.
On the other hand, former Pakistani Player, Javed Miandad is still hopeful and says, “The match is still in favorable condition as we haven’t lost it yet. There is a need for a stronger come back on the third day”.
He further added in his video on his YouTube channel that winning and losing the match is part of the game and should never be taken on nerves. The team identify themselves and should reset the strategy to come back in the match.
He shared his sentiments on Champion Trophy winning captain Sarfaraz Ahmed being the 12th man in the match. He asserted that the former captain should have been given respect else he should not have been sent if management doesn’t consider need of a senior player in the match.
Talking about first test match, in which greens lost by three wickets, Miandad said that the it was a spinning wicket and hard to judge the new balls, therefore Green’s spinners had an edge to get the wickets easily that they could not.
The 3rd starts off today and holds surprises for Cricket Spectators. 3rd day of the match can also be the deciding day in the beginning. A strong play from Pakistan can bring a new hope to the match.