Pakistan lost the second test match against England by 26 runs; with this win, England won three test match series by 2-0, and this loss of Green Army closed the door for them to the World Test Championship 2021-23.
When the game resumed on the fourth day of the match, the host was looking good because they only required 157 runs to win the clash. However English team had to strike six wickets, and their batter Saud Shakeel and Mohammad Nawaz were looking good. They made a partnership of 80 runs when the English speedster dismissed both batters and changed the game’s momentum in just two consecutive overs.
In the 94th Over of the match, English pacer Mark Wood’s short bowl took the edge of the bat of Shakeel and went toward the leg side, which was caught by the English wicketkeeper batter Ollie Pope diving on his right. Umpire gave a soft signal out, and immediately Pakistani team went for review.
Replays showed that the English wicketkeeper didn’t grab the ball, and it was grounded while taking the catch. But the third umpire took too much time with inclusive replays and went with the weak signal of the field umpire.
The dismissal of Shakeel was debatable, and after his dismissal, the English team received a lot of criticism on social media. After the match, Pakistani’s skipper Babar Azam broke his silence on the dismissal and said we were in the dressing room and felt that ball had touched the ground.
“The Shakeel dismissal cost us. It looked to us as if the ball had touched the ground. As a professional, you have to respect the umpire’s decision, but we felt the ball had been grounded,” Babar said.
When both the batter went pavilion, none of the batters of Babar & Co. was standing at the crease to struggle against the English bowling attack and lost the all-important clash against England team, and this was a historic win for the English team. This is the almost lowest performance of the Pakistani team, and they have lost three consecutive test matches at home.
