England stormed to an unlikely record-breaking victory on the morning of the final day of their opening Test match against Pakistan in Multan.
In the ‘Bazball’ era, the Multan Test of this Pakistan tour ranks with some of their greatest victories overseas, notably Rawalpindi in 2022 and Hyderabad at the start of this year.
Jack Leach finished with four wickets, as the hosts were unable to recover from the 82 for six they slumped to on the fourth day and with the absence of Abrar Ahmed who remained in hospital, England only needed three wickets and they took them within the morning session.
England won by an innings and 47 runs, only their second win by an innings in Asia, and a feat that was unthinkable when Pakistan closed out the second day having put on 556 in their first innings.
No side in history has ever scored as many runs as Pakistan did over the first two days and then gone on to lose by an innings, it was a remarkable feat.
England have won on three occasions when they conceded totals of more than 500, although the only time they fielded first, found themselves more than 500 behind and then went on to win was in 1894.
The victory came in large part due to Joe Root and Harry Brook’s record-breaking stand of 454 runs, as England put on a mammoth 823 for seven declared. The total scored by Ollie Pope’s side is the fourth highest ever, and the most by England since the Second World War.
England’s extraordinary win in numbers
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England’s 823-7 declared was the fourth-highest total in Test cricket
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Harry Brook and Joe Root’s 454 partnership is the highest by two English batters
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Joe Root overtook Sir Alastair Cook to become England’s highest-ever run-scorer
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No team before had conceded 556 and gone on to win by an innings
Brook and Root’s stand became England’s highest-ever Test batting partnership. The previous was set by Peter May and Colin Cowdrey in 1957, but that one took 1,140 deliveries compared to the Yorkshire duo’s 522. It was also only the third time two players have scored more than 250 in Tests.
Stand-in captain Pope spoke of the momentous occasion after the match: “Everyone knows what a special win that was. It’s been a serious effort,” said Pope.
“Whenever you get 550, whatever pitch it is, it’s always a good score, but we also knew if we batted like we know we can then we can go big.
“We’ve got two greedy Yorkshiremen and they did exactly that. What they did was seriously special and a joy to watch.
“It’s been phenomenal. You take confidence from those previous performances when you’re that far behind in the game but the main thing for us in that changing room is that we try not to think about the end result too much during the game.
“Especially if we’re behind we know if we can rock up, give absolutely 100 per cent, chase the ball as hard as we can in the field and do those small things, then the bigger things will look after themselves.
“That’s what has allowed us to go and put together these performances and good wins in situations where, in the past, we potentially wouldn’t have got over the line.”
Root became the first player to record 20,000 international runs across all formats, and only the 13th player in total. On day three Root overtook Sir Alastair Cook to become England’s highest-ever run scorer and fifth overall.
Brook became England’s first player to score a triple century in 34 years and his total of 317 is the fifth highest Test score by an Englishman. He has a tendency to bat well in Pakistan, he has scored more runs in Pakistan than in England, during his previous tour in 2022 and the first innings in Multan.
With reporting from PA