Sajid spins England into trouble after Duckett sprints to century
The Guardian|October 17, 2024
Sajid Khan is a player who demands attention, a character whose moustache, however eyecatching, is not half as flamboyant as his celebrations.
Simon Burnton
Sajid spins England into trouble after Duckett sprints to century

As England's innings imploded across a dramatic afternoon, and an old, tired pitch that had held firm across nearly seven days of Test cricket finally started to surrender, there were quite a few of those.

He is a man who could hardly be more theatrical if he donned a scarlet bowler hat and started twirling a cane, and here he found a stage. The tourists looked on course to comfortably match Pakistan's first-innings total of 366 until, as the day drew towards a close and with a ball showing the first signs of old age, the spinners found some turn and course of the game took a twist. At stumps England were six down and still 127 behind.

"We kind of knew what the pitch was going to do," said Ben Duckett. "If we'd batted on that yesterday and there was only one seamer and it wasn't spinning a great deal, things would have been very different. It's only going to get harder, I think.

"We're in a position now where tomorrow morning's massive. We need to try to win that first session, then we'll be in a good position in the game. I'd be very surprised if it didn't just continue to spin more and more. Certainly that fourth innings is going to be a bit tricky."

This story is from the October 17, 2024 edition of The Guardian.

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This story is from the October 17, 2024 edition of The Guardian.

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