Saud Shakeel got Pakistan out of a difficult situation by scoring a brilliant century.Image credit source: AFP
Luck can change at any time on the cricket field. The latest example of this is the Indian and Pakistani teams. The Indian team, which has been used to easily defeating rival teams at home for the past few years, suddenly finds itself in a bind. At the same time, the landscape of the Pakistani team has started to change and this team, which had failed to win the Test match on its soil for the last three years, now seems to be making a tremendous comeback. While New Zealand put pressure on the Indian team in the second Test match in Pune, at the same time the Pakistani team came back from England in the Rawalpindi Test and took the lead. The star of Pakistan’s comeback turned out to be the batsman who scored another excellent century. This batsman is Saud Shakeel, who recently also became the vice-captain of the team.
Similar conditions between India and Pakistan on the first day
On the one hand, on Thursday, October 24, the second test match between India and New Zealand began in Pune, while on the same day the last test of the series between Pakistan and England began at the Pindi Cricket Stadium in Rawalpindi. Batting first, New Zealand scored 259 runs on a spin-friendly pitch in Pune. England also scored 267 runs at the spin-friendly Pindi ground. In response, by the end of the day, Team India had scored 16 runs after losing one wicket, while Pakistan had scored 73 runs after losing 3 wickets. The situation of both parties seemed the same but it changed completely on the second day.
History changed on the second day, Saud scored a century
On the second day of the Pune Test, Team India collapsed for just 156 runs and New Zealand gained a lead of 103 runs. At the same time, in Pindi, Pakistan also lost 7 wickets for 177 runs and their condition also resembled that of the Indian team, but that is where the big difference came. While no batsman could play responsibly for the Indian team, for Pakistan their vice-captain Saud Shakeel took the lead. This left-handed batsman made his debut in December 2022 and has been scoring runs continuously since then.
Shakeel did the same this time and scored a memorable century, getting the Pakistani team out of a difficult situation and giving them the lead. This is the fourth century of Shakeel’s Test career and the second century this year. Earlier, he had also scored a century against Bangladesh in August.
Gave leadership to the team
On the basis of this century of Shakeel, the Pakistani team surpassed the score of England. Shakeel also got help from the lower order here. Both spinners Noman Ali and Sajid Khan, who took England’s wickets with their bowling in the Multan and Pindi Tests, also contributed with the bat. Noman played an excellent innings of 45 runs and put up a strong partnership of 88 runs with Saud. Sajid, who came after this, also counter-attacked and made a half-century partnership with Saud, taking the Pakistan team to 344 runs, giving Pakistan a lead of 77 runs over England.
