While Babar Azam is regarded by many as among the modern day greats, the expectations, it seems, from the Pakistan captain are not easy to meet. An incident which happened on Day 4 of the second Test between England and Pakistan in Multan is enough evidence of the same. In what was surely one of the decisive moments of the match, Babar failed with the bat in the fourth innings of the match with the hosts having been set a target of 355, after having already lost the series opener.
After being bowled by England's Ollie Robinson when Babar took the long walk back to the pavilion, the 28-year-old was mercilessly trolled by his home fans. While a fan was caught saying "ZimBabar" another took at a dig at him by calling him "Ghante ka King." The crowd's usage of "ZimBabar" was seemingly an attempt to suggest that the Pakistan skipper scores heavily only against Zimbabwe. The video of the same has gone viral on the internet.
Take a look at the video:
Mark Wood the hero for England on final day
With the help of a gritty 94 from Saud Shakeel and another fighting knock from Shan Masood (60), Pakistan came close to levelling the 3-match series on Monday, but it was Mark Wood's 4 for 65 that set up England's victory. With the help of this win, England have clinched their first series in Pakistan in 17 years having beaten the hosts in the first match in the Rawalpindi Cricket Stadium in Lahore.
Post opting to bat first, England posted 281 runs, thanks to half-centuries from Ben Duckett (63 off 49) and Ollie Pope (60). The Three Lions looked set for even more but spin bowling duo of Abrar Ahmed and Zahid Mahmood spun a web around the Englishmen who were 117/1 at one stage.
In response, the home team were given the taste of their own medicine with spinners Jack Leach (4 for 98) and Joe Root (2 for 23) picking 6 of the 10 wickets. Mark Wood, Ollie Robinson and James Anderson were the other takers for England as they managed to restrict Pakistan to 202, despite Babar scoring 75 runs and Shakeel chipping in with 63, implying a crucial 79-run first innings lead for the touring party.
The hero of the second batting innings for England was Player of the Match Harry Brook who scored a hundred that started tightening England's grip on the match. Duckett also backed up his half-century in the first innings with another fifty and scored 79 runs. For Pakistan, once again all the wickets were bagged by spinners with Mohammad Nawaz (1 for 42) also joining Ahmed (4/120) and (3/52).
The final innings of the match had its own ebbs and flows. At stumps on Day 3, Pakistan needed 157 more runs to win and had 6 wickets in their kitty. But it was two wickets that fell in quick succession at the stroke of Lunch 4 that titled the balance in England's favour. Mark Wood got rid of both of them, eventually ending with figures of 4/65. From there on, there was no looking back as England wrapped up the Pakistan tail quickly, picking the last 4 wickets for 37 runs.
The third and final Test of the series starts in Karachi on December 17.