England completed a historic 3-0 clean sweep over the hosts Pakistan inside 40 minutes on Day 4 of the third and last Test at the National Cricket Stadium in Karachi.
Starting at their overnight score of 112 for 2, England took just 11.1 overs to reach their 167-run target.
Ben Duckett remained unbeaten on 82, while the England skipper Ben Stokes was not out on 35. The two left-handed batter added an unbroken partnership of 73 runs for the third wicket.
After losing the toss and asked to bowl first on a pitch which was perfect for spin bowling, the Three Lions pulled off their most emphatic win. It was also a memorable game for 18-year-old leg-spinner Rehan Ahmed as he became the youngest man to play a Test match for England. He even took a five wicket-haul in Pakistan’s second innings.
Prior to that, the hosts were put in a commanding position by Harry Brook’s third century of the series. The 23-year-old smashed 111 off 150 balls in England’s first innings.
Hark Brook 🔥 #PAKvENG pic.twitter.com/9Ip2saWAic
— CricketTimes.com (@CricketTimesHQ) December 20, 2022
England, on their first Test tour of Pakistan in 17 years, have become the first visiting team to win three matches in a series in this country. Before this, England managed to win only two Tests on the Pakistan soil in their 30 attempts across 61 years.
In the meantime, former England captain Nasser Hussain has come down hard at Babar Azam for his ‘orthodox’ captaincy, saying “the difference between both captains [Babar and Stokes] has been stark”.
Speaking to Sky Sports, Hussain highlighted the difference in styles between Babar and Stokes, having praised the latter for “one of the greatest displays of captaincy” he had ever seen after the first Test in Rawalpindi.
“The difference between the captains has been stark, really,” said Nasser. “Babar very orthodox, very… almost textbook. ‘I’ll just bowl the bowlers that are my favourite bowlers that I think might get wickets’. Whereas Stokes is thinking out of the box all the time, he’ll throw the ball randomly to someone if he fancies it, a bit of gut feel. I didn’t feel Babar captained particularly well, it was very orthodox.”