England became the first test team to complete a 3-0 whitewash in Pakistan after they won the third and final match by eight wickets in Karachi on Tuesday.
At the Karachi test, the Pakistan Cricket team was restricted to 304 runs on 1st Day. Pakistan cricket team bowled out for 304 runs in the first innings facing England’s great bowling. England scored 354 runs. In the second Innings England restricted Pakistan to 216.
England comfortably chased a target of 167 to add to their victories in Rawalpindi and Multan.
Zak Crawley (41) and Ben Duckett (82 not out) made an 87-run opening partnership to give England a flying start before Abrar Ahmed trapped Crawley lbw.
England all-rounder Rehan Ahmed, promoted to number three, made 10 runs before the leg spinner lost his off-stump, but a 73-run partnership between captain Ben Stokes and Duckett sealed the win during the morning session of day four.
It was Pakistan’s first-ever 3-0 loss in a three-Test series on home soil.
Pakistan fell for 216 against 18-year-old rookie Rehan Ahmed (5-48) in the second innings to set England a modest target of 167 for victory.
Ben Duckett resumed on 50 and remained unbeaten on 82 off 78 balls and skip(per Ben Stokes signed off his team’s dominant ‘Bazball’ brand of aggressive cricket by finishing 35 not out.
Pakistan spinner Abrar Ahmed could have finished the series with 18 wickets in two Test matches, but Agha Salman couldn’t hold onto a difficult chance from Stoke at long-on with England just 19 runs away from a memorable win.
England won the first Test on a flat wicket in Rawalpindi by 74 runs in dimming light on the last day before recording a thrilling 26-run win at Multan on a slow-turning track inside four days.
Rehan Ahmed conquered Pakistan’s batters in the team’s fortress — National Stadium — on Day 3 and England had motored to 112-2 in the final session through the aggressive batting of Zak Crawley (41) and Duckett.
It was just the third loss for Pakistan at the National Stadium in 45 Test matches and the first in 15 years. England was the first team to beat Pakistan there in a Test match in 2000 before South Africa won a Test match here seven years later.
The 3-0 drubbing was also Pakistan’s fourth successive Test loss at home after Australia beat them in the final Test earlier this year to win the two-Test series 1-0.
Pakistan was kept at bay throughout the last three weeks and unable to find the right combination to counter England’s aggressive gameplan, which began at home this summer and now has seen them winning nine of the last 10 Test matches. England’s only loss in that period was against South Africa at Lord’s before the Proteas got beaten 2-1 in the series.
England set the tone of a clean sweep in Pakistan when four of its batters smashed centuries on the opening day of the first Test and the visitors racked up a world-record 506-4.
Young Harry Brook filled perfectly in the shoes of injured Jonny Bairstow with three successive Test centuries on tour and amassed 468 runs.
His 111 at Karachi in the first innings fetched England a vital first-innings lead of 50 runs before Pakistan capitulated against Ahmed’s leg spin in the second innings.
Remember that Pakistan batsman Azhar Ali announced he was retiring from Test cricket after the third and final Test match against England in Karachi.
With 7,097 runs in 96 matches at an average of 42.49, Ali is Pakistan’s fifth leading Test run-scorer after Younis Khan (10,099), Javed Miandad (8,832), Inzamam-ul-Haq (8,829) and Mohammad Yousuf (7,530), according to the PCB.
Azhar Ali also captained Pakistan in nine Tests in two separate tenures from 2016 to 2020.
Addressing a press conference in Karachi, the right-handed batsman said, “Everything has its time. This is the right time, tomorrow will be my career’s last Test. It was an honour for him to represent Pakistan.”
