ENG vs PAK: 1st Test – Stats Review

England took a 1-0 lead in the 3-match Test series against Pakistan following a dramatic 4th day’s play in Manchester on Saturday (August 8). Pakistan added 32 runs to their overnight score before getting bowled out. Chasing a target of 277, England were firmly placed at 86/1 before losing four wickets for 21 runs. At this stage, Jos Buttler and Chris Woakes added 139 runs to take the home team close to a victory. England eventually got to the target taking 82.1 overs at the loss of seven wickets. Here’s a list of records tumbled in the ENG vs PAK 1st Test:

Impressive Masood

1 – Shan Masood became the first opening batsman in England to record a 150+ score and also bag a duck in the same Test match. He is also the 2nd player after Billy Murdoch (0 & 153* vs ENG in 1880) with this double in a Test match in England. Overall, only five players before Masood recorded a 150+ score and a duck in the same Test for Pakistan.

2 – Masood is only the 2nd player in Test cricket to register centuries in three consecutive innings against three different opponents. Vinod Kambli was the first player with this feat as he scored double tons in consecutive Test innings against England and Zimbabwe in 1993 before scoring a century against Sri Lanka in his very next innings. Coming into this series, Masood scored a century in Pakistan’s 2nd essay of the Karachi Test against Sri Lanka and against Bangladesh in the Rawalpindi Test.

2 – Shan Masood also became the 2nd Pakistan opener to score a hat-trick of centuries in Test cricket after Mudassar Nazar who achieved it in 1983. Masood is also only the 5th Pakistan player to score a Test century while opening the innings in England and the first since Saeed Anwar (174) during the 1996 Oval Test.

Yasir spins

5 – Yasir Shah now has four 4-wicket hauls in Test cricket on England soil. Among Pakistan players, Waqar Younis (6) is the only other to have five or more 4-wicket hauls in Test cricket on English soil.

In fact, Yasir is also only then 2nd Asian spinner after Muttiah Muralitharan (6) to claim as many as five 4-fers in Test cricket in England.

17y 172d – Naseem Shah, with the wicket of Ollie Pope in the first innings, became the 3rd youngest player to claim a wicket in Men’s Test cricket on England soil.

Khalid Hasan (1954 Nottingham Test) and Ata-ur-Rehman (1992 Birmingham Test) were 16y 352d and 17y 68d respectively at the time of their maiden Test wicket in England.

Buttler’s comeback

75 – Jos Buttler’s 75-run knock in the second essay is the highest by an England wicketkeeper in a successful Test chase. The previous highest was 73 by Alec Stewart during the 2000 Centurion Test against South Africa.

84* – The unbeaten 84-run knock from Chris Woakes is now the 2nd highest innings by a No.7 or lower position batsman for England during a successful 4th innings chase. The highest in this list is recorded by Gilbert Jessop during 1902 The Oval Test against Australia where he scored 104 also while batting at No.7.

Chasing totals

107 – Only the 2nd time Pakistan lost a Test match after earning a lead of 100+ runs while batting first. They lost the 1994 Christchurch Test to New Zealand by five wickets even after taking a 144-run first-innings lead.

1999 – Last time a team successful chased a target of 250 or more against Pakistan in the 4th innings of a Test match was way back in 1999. Australia chased down 369 during the Hobart Test match which is also the highest successful ever against Pakistan in Test cricket.

2008 – The last instance of a team successfully chasing down a target in a Test match at Old Trafford was back in 2008 by England against New Zealand. The English team chased down 294 against the Blackcaps which remains the only bigger target achieved in Manchester than England’s 277 on Saturday.