MULTAN: Chris Woakes uplifted England by getting rid of Babar Azam in the dying minutes of the opening day of the first Test after Shan Masood and Abdullah Shafique scored centuries for Pakistan.
At the Stumps on Day 1, Pakistan were 328/4 with vice-captain Saud Shakeel (35*) and nightwatchman Naseem Shah (0*) unbeaten in the middle.
The eventful final session marked the return of England as the touring side claimed three wickets including set batters Masood and Shafique and star batter Babar.
Gus Atkinson provided England with a much-needed breakthrough when he got Shafique caught in the eighth over after Tea.
The right-handed opener scored 102 off 184 deliveries, laced up with a dozen boundaries including two sixes.
Meanwhile, Pakistan captain Masood perished two overs later when he spooned Jack Leach for a regulation caught and bowled briefly after amassing the 150-run milestone.
Masood scored 151 off 177 deliveries with the help of 13 fours and two sixes.
Babar Azam then joined forces with Pakistan vice-captain Saud Shakeel and added 81 runs for the fourth wicket before eventually falling victim to Chris Woakes in the penultimate over of the opening day.
Babar scored 30 off 71 balls, hitting five boundaries in the process.
For England, Gus Atkinson bagged two wickets while Chris Woakes and Jack Leach made one scalp each.
Earlier, Pakistan dominated England in the second session as they had reached 233-1 by thanks to Abdullah Shafique and skipper Shan Masood.
The two batters extended Pakistan’s dominance in the second session and left England bowlers struggling to stop the flow of runs.
Shan, in particular, played aggressively and took 102 balls to reach his fifth hundred in Test cricket and his first as captain. His ton was the fastest by a Pakistan batter since 2015.
Meanwhile, Abdullah supported his captain with his quick running between the wickets and elegant strokeplay.
The hosts scored 122-1 at Lunch with Masood and Shafique standing strong at 61 and 53 respectively.
Shan opted to bat first after winning the toss and came out to bat in the fourth over after Saim Ayub (4) fell to Gus Atkinson.
Abdullah, who was struggling in the recent Bangladesh series, took his time to settle before displaying his strokeplay.
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Meanwhile, Shan got his usual quick start and converted it into a dominant half-century, scoring at a strike-rate of more than 100.
Abdullah also switched gears at the stroke of Lunch and attacked Shoaib Bashir, hitting two fours and a six to bring up his first half-century in the last seven innings. He conceded 77 balls to reach the milestone.
Playing XIs
Pakistan: Saim Ayub, Abdullah Shafique, Shan Masood (c), Babar Azam, Saud Shakeel (vc), Mohammad Rizwan (wk), Salman Ali Agha, Aamir Jamal, Shaheen Afridi, Naseem Shah, and Abrar Ahmad.
England: Zak Crawley, Ben Duckett, Ollie Pope (c), Joe Root, Harry Brook, Jamie Smith (wk), Chris Woakes, Gus Atkinson, Brydon Carse, Jack Leach, and Shoaib Bashir.
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