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33rd over: England 145-5 (Foakes 0, Brook 42) Foakes is out at mid on for his first innings of the series. And he has work to do.
WICKET! Stokes finished with Azhar/Wasim 26 (England 145-5)
alas my days Brook removes Wasim for what looks to be a comfortable couple of runs. Except Stokes wants three and keeps going, even as Brook goes back. The throw comes in from Azhar Ali and Wasim forces the non-striker end with the easiest of outs. Strange confusion and Pakistan are right about this.
32nd over: England 140-4 (Stokes 25, Brook 38) A tidy maiden to start the session.
Ben Stokes and Harry Brook are out there again. Looks like Abrar will kick things off.
Australia have won by six wickets at the Gabba in two days. What balance is this?
Lunch – England 140-4
31st over: England 140-4 (Brook 38, Stokes 25) Wasim is full and straight to Brook, resulting in an lbw shout, but it probably goes down. Decent pace from Wasim, going over 140km/h, but has struggled with his lines so far. Brook, off the third ball of the over, takes a stunning shot, opening the off side with a little leg shuffle, his four hitting the straightest of the bats. And that’s lunch!
30th over: England 135-4 (Brook 33, Stokes 25) Stokes sweeps for four off the third ball of the over. Nauman then falls too short and Stokes steps back to hit the offside for another boundary. It looks good.
29th over: England 127-4 (Stokes 17, Brook 33) Wasim returns and Stokes shows his hand early, stomping down the pitch but doesn’t put a bat on it. The England captain hits the penultimate ball of the over, however, steps forward to smash it for four through over.
Open magic delivery to get Pope out:
28th over: England 122-4 (Stokes 12, Brook 33) They’re talking football and fishing on the comms right now, so things have calmed down a bit.
27th over: England 120-4 (Brook 32, Stokes 11) Stokes sweeps and the ball bounces to hit Abdullah Shafique at short leg off the helmet. Then a brief pause in play to make sure all is well, and so it seems.
26th over: England 118-4 (Stokes 10, Brook 31) Stokes sees some air and sweeps Nauman hard for his first boundary.
25th over: England 110-4 (Brook 29, Stokes 4) Abrar calls home with an lbw appeal against Stokes, but the ball looks like it has been bowled outside leg. A quick, flat and straight follows to Brook, who barely keeps him out.
24th over: England 108-4 (Stokes 3, Brook 28) Stokes and Brook trade singles as Nauman continues.
23rd over: England 105-4 (Stokes 1, Brook 27) Stokes comes down the track to get off the mark with a single before Brook ends the over with a back-to-back six. how do you
WICKET! Pope b Abrar 51 (England 98-4)
Oh, you’re not playing this. Abrar delivers a beauty, drawing the pressure forward before getting the ball to turn and step on the stumps. A magical piece of bowling.
Fifty for Olie Pope!
22nd over: England 97-3 (Brook 20, Pope 51) Pope ends Nauman’s over with a boundary for his 11th Test fifty. played
Kim, who is trying to have it all, posts: “To keep track of events here and at the Gabba, I’ve resorted to holding a phone in each hand, which allows me to control both OBO channels simultaneously. I feel rather like The Sundance Kid with a six-shooter in each hand, holding off lawmen besieging my last refuge. That’s fine until my wife wakes up and demands her phone back. Then she’ll have to make a difficult decision as he is unlikely to take no for an answer.”
Looks like Australia is about to fix that. They just need twenty-somethings more to wrap things up at the Gabba.
21st over: England 89-3 (Pope 44, Brook 19) Abrar tries the front hand delivery and it’s too far down the leg side: Brook sweeps for four.
20th over: England 84-3 (Pope 43, Brook 15) Another neat one from Nauman.
Tony writes in: “There has been a lot of talk about who to leave in the England team and who to leave out, mostly revolving around who keeps the wicket and who is essentially a batsman. I would suggest that perhaps the choice would be simpler if off. Part-time spinner and batsman Root was dropped! Can you say such things?”
Tony, Tony, Tony. It’s early in the morning and I don’t think you’ve had your coffee yet.
19th over: England 83-3 (Pope 42, Brook 15) Abrar goes full and quick off the front of the hand to leave Brook in all sorts, and Babar steps up for a review. It’s going down the side of the leg, though, quite comfortably. Brook bounces off the last ball of the over, swinging back for a leg hit to take four. He was so quick to get into position for that.
The two wickets that fell earlier:
18th over: England 77-3 (Brook 10, Pope 41) Babar returns to the field as Nauman turns to concede just one. Drink time
Brian writes: “My expectations of proper, quiet Test cricket were being slightly disturbed by England’s cheerful run-scoring pace, but after the quick dismissals of Duckett and Root we can perhaps hope that young Brook and Pope undertake a patient reconstruction and restoration.decency to the proceedings”.
I’m not sure the kids stay quiet for long…
17th over: England 76-3 (Brook 9, Pope 41) Indignant from Brook, who bowls Abrar for a straight six, on the back foot raised for some extra flair. An LBW shout follows as Brook comes down the pitch a couple of balls later, but he’s too far from his crease for that to be a problem.
16th over: England 69-3 (Brook 2, Pope 41) Pope comes down the track to touch the ball to mid on and steal a single.
15th over: England 65-3 (Pope 38, Brook 1) Abrar gets another to stay very low, and Pope does well to pull it back for a couple.
14th over: England 60-3 (Pope 33, Brook 1) No hat-trick as Brook runs out immediately. A wonderful over from Nauman Ali livened up the proceedings.
Nauman in a hat-trick! Brook is out there to deal with it.
WICKET!!! Root c Salman b Nauman 0 (England 58-3)
Another! Lovely from Nauman as he bowls one to get the root to slide forward, and the outside edge is gobbled up at first slip. The referees check to see if it’s worn, and there’s no drama. A first player from Root. What a moment!
WICKET! Duckett lbw Nauman 26 (England 58-2)
And that’s getting to the halfway point! It was the referee’s call on impact. Nauman, off the cover, swerved to catch Duckett on the back foot. This has come slightly out of nowhere for Pakistan.
Duckett opines after Nauman has him lbw…
13th over: England (Duckett 26, Pope 32) Big from Duckett! He comes down the track and smashes Abrar for a straight six. Beautiful, beautiful shot. The left-hander taps towards the offside for a single a couple of balls later, and Pope collects a boundary with a nice clip down the leg side. England are cruising.
12th over: England 47-1 (Duckett 19, Pope 28) Pope and Duckett square off comfortably against Nauman, with the latter chipping in for a single.
11th over: England 42-1 (Duckett 17, Pope 25) Abrar is adjusting, and looking threatening, this low bounce gives him something to work with.
Here’s some love for Adam Collins, a regular on these pages. A great call on Mitchell Starc’s 300th Test wicket.
10th over: England 38-1 (Pope 22, Duckett 16) The quicks aren’t having much fun, so spin from both ends as Nauman Ali gets a bowl. Duckett moves away down the leg side and gets two after a fielding error by Abrar, who was ambitious in trying the one-handed pickup.
9th over: England 33-1 (Pope 20, Duckett 13) Duckett gets his beloved sweep for a couple of Abrar.
8th over: England 30-1 (Pope 19, Duckett 11) Wasim gets the boot after two costly overs, with Faheem Ashraf called into the attack to replace him. It brings a little more control, giving up just a couple.
7th over: England 28-1 (Duckett 10, Pope 18) Abrar gets one to stay down, giving Pope a bit of a scare.
“Taha in the morning.” Good morning, Brian.
“I must confess that I was almost distracted by the chaos available in Australia, but the lure of proper, quiet Test cricket in your reassuring company was too strong. until lunch…”
Thanks Brian, you made the right call.
6th over: England 26-1 (Pope 17, Duckett 9) On the pads from Wasim, and Pope flicks it down the leg side for four. The debutant is too straight again with his next delivery, and Pope takes two with another whip. Duckett ends the over with a clip of his own behind square for four.
5th over: England 15-1 (Pope 10, Duckett 5) Abrar has the ball, and it’s Mohammad Rizwan who is taking the shot for Pakistan – Babar Azam is down, says Nasser on comms. Maiden for the leg.
4th over: England 15-1 (Duckett 5, Pope 10) Pope throws his hands out there to a wide and, although not in full control, finds four over the crease. We are on our way on the second day.
Ollie Pope and Ben Duckett are out there, and Mohammad Wasim has the ball.
Now, look, I don’t want people to leave me here. But there is a bit of madness at the Gabba.
Scott Boland: That test average is still absolutely ridiculous.
This is all kinds of beautiful.
“The pride you must have in your heart this week watching your 18-year-old son play cricket at the National Stadium in Karachi is beyond compare.” ❤️
A very special presentation of Test cap 710 🧢
🇵🇰 #PAKvENG 🏴 pic.twitter.com/YKPMFThXGF
— England Cricket (@englandcricket) December 17, 2022
preamble
Good morning, people! The opening day in Karachi was historic, all thanks to a teenage boy with some very useful tricks. Rehan Ahmed became England’s youngest male…