Southampton
Pakistan’s Shaheen Afridi needed just four balls to remove England’s Rory Burns for a duck on Sunday before bad weather again interrupted the second Test at Southampton.
England were 7-1 in reply to Pakistan’s first innings 236 when rain stopped play at 12:00 pm local time (1100 GMT) on the fourth day.
In gloomy conditions that, with the floodlights on, favoured Pakistan’s pacemen as they had England’s quicks, left-arm fast bowler Afridi produced a superb delivery that moved away from left-hander Burns, who edged to second slip Asad Shafiq.
It took England until the third over to score their first run as Dom Sibley and Zak Crawley struggled against both Afridi and the accurate Mohammad Abbas.
When the umpires called a halt, Sibley was two not out and Crawley, recalled in place of Ben Stokes after the star all-rounder withdrew from this match to be with his ill father in New Zealand, five not out.
There was no more play before lunch. Earlier, Mohammad Rizwan top-scored with 72 as Pakistan’s first innings finally came to an end.
Pakistan resumed on 223-9 after rain had washed out the whole of Saturday’s play in a match where bad weather had also curtailed the first two days.
And there was a further delay to the scheduled 1000 GMT start when, despite having had hours to prepare for the possibility, a member of the groundstaff had to bring out sawdust for the bowlers’ run-ups.Rizwan was then 60 not out — his second fifty in eight career Tests following his 95 against Australia in Brisbane in November.
The wicketkeeper, in partnership with dogged tailender Abbas (two off 20 balls), had taken Pakistan past 200 in a ninth-wicket after they had come together with the tourists struggling at 176-8.
Rizwan made his intentions clear by swingingly wildly, and missing, at James Anderson as he charged down the pitch to Sunday’s first ball of the day.—AFP
