England overpowered the only fight from Pakistan's batters in the series after beating them in the third and final Test at Edgbaston, Birmingham, to seal their first-ever whitewash of Pakistan at home.
BIRMINGHAM — England overpowered the only fight from Pakistan's batters in the series after beating them in the third and final Test at Edgbaston, Birmingham, to seal their first-ever whitewash of Pakistan at home.
Joe Root (62) and Jordan (59) scored half centuries as England chased down the 130-run target after Mohammad Abbas' early strikes put the hosts under pressure. But the unscathed 128-run partnership from the No.3 and No.4 sealed the deal for the Three Lions for an eight-wicket win, which saw them sweep Pakistan 3-0.
Pakistan showed their only fight with the bat in the second innings of the third Test after smashing 449, following all of their previous totals being under 200. Debutant Razaullah was the star with the ball and the bat for Pakistan as he picked four wickets in the first innings before hitting 81 from 63 balls to give hope to the Men in Green of an improbable win.
He smashed nine sixes, the most by any player on Test debut during his entertaining knock on Day 3. Shan Masood (95), captain Babar Azam (76) and opener Azam Awais (59) had earlier put in strong knocks to help the visitors stage a comeback. Abbas also had a good hand with the bat as he made 42 and put up 120 runs for the ninth wicket with Razaullah.
These knocks came after Ollie Robinson removed Saim Ayub and Abdullah Shafique for ducks, with the former bagging a pair after his nought in the first innings too. England were made to do the hard work with the ball for the only time in the series as Gus Atkinson took three wickets and Robinson, Josh Tongue and Dan Lawrence scalped a couple each.
England had opted to bowl first after winning the toss. Tongue, Archer and Robinson ran through the Pakistan batting line-up as they shared all the 10 wickets. There was nothing much from the visitors and barring Saud Shakeel (43), none of the other top eight batters entered the double digits. A bit of a fight came from Razaullah (11) and Abbas (21).
England replied extremely well with the bat as Emilio Gay scored 60, while Harry Brook (75), Lawrence (65), Jamie Smith (69), and Robinson (50) scored half-centuries but could not get to the triple-digit mark.
In the end, Root and Cox did the work, with the England skipper ending the series from where he began: a half-century, as England won 3-0.