Pakistan have beaten England by 9 wickets in the third and final Test of the series at the Rawapindi Cricket Stadium on Saturday (October 26). The win helps Pakistan seal a series win after losing the Test series opener in Multan in a match where they had scored over 500 runs in the first innings but yet went on to lose.
Much like the hosts' win in the second Test, their victory in Rawalpindi was set up by the performance from their spinners. While it was Sajid Khan who produced 6 wickets in the first innings with Noman Ali returning with 3 wickets and Zahid Mahmood getting a solitary wicket. In the second innings, Noman and Sajid shared the 10 wickets between them with Noman getting six wickets this time around.
England won the toss and elected to bat first, posting 267 runs. Wicketkeeper-batter Jamie Smith scored a valiant 89 to help them reach that total after the Three Lions were 118/6 at one stage. In response, Pakistan scored 344 runs with the help of Saud Shakeel's 134 which helped him bag the Player Of The Match as it firmly set up the game in the home team's favour. The touring party could only muster 112 runs in the second innings with Joe Root's 33 being the highest score.
Pakistan only needed 36 runs to win in the fourth innings, a target which they reached in 3.1 overs, losing Saim Ayub in the process to mark an extraordinary series win. After having lost the series opener, Shan Masood had lost six matches in a row under his captaincy and were under pressure. However, they changed their approach, made some bold selection calls and turned it around in style in the next two Tests. It was no surprise that Sajid Khan was named the Player Of the Series for finishing with 19 wickets in the series at an average of 19.10.