England captain Ben Stokes believes wicketkeeper Ollie Pope grabbed a clean catch to dismiss Pakistan batter Saud Shakeel in his team’s series-deciding win in the second Test on Monday.
“No doubt about that [catch] in my mind,” Stokes said after Pakistan were bowled out for 328 an hour into the second session and fell 26 runs short of the 355-run target on the fourth day as England took an unassailable 2-0 lead in the three-match series.
“The only thing where you start worrying is when it gets looked at for a long period of time because that’s when you start having doubt in your own head,” Stokes added. “I’ve been part of games before where I’ve been on the team who’s been on the receiving end of those decisions and you’re always like, ‘that’s not carried’.”
Pakistan captain Babar Azam believed the catch cost his team the game. He felt the ball was grounded before it went into Pope’s gloves, but said the teams have to follow the umpires’ decisions.
Shakeel battled gallantly for just over 5½ hours in making 94 off 213 balls against the pace and spin before Mark Wood tangled the left-hander down the leg side just before the lunch interval and Pope claimed a low two-handed catch to his right and reduced Pakistan to 7-291 by lunch.
Television umpire Joel Wilson upheld onfield umpire Aleem Dar’s soft signal of out as he took several minutes and watched the replays from various angles.
Shakeel’s dismissal took the game away from Pakistan before England folded the tail after lunch for its second absorbing win in the last two weeks.
“You see a lot of those decisions and those type of catches in cricket,” Stokes said. “It went our way, but I’ve been involved in a few decisions where stuff like that has gone against us, but you can’t change that.”
It also sparked controversy on social media and in commentary. On the broadcast, Pakistan legend Waqar Younis said Shakeel “was clearly not out” and England great Michael Atherton said arguably “a bit of the ball was touching the grass”.
Former England captain Michael Vaughan was among those to weigh in on social media, disagreeing with the decision.
Pakistani cricketer Kamran Akmal took the same position.
England, on their first Test tour to Pakistan in 17 years, have been on a roll through their aggressive brand of cricket that started in the English summer when they won six of their seven Test matches under the captaincy of Stokes and new coach Brendon McCullum.
In the past England had won only two Test matches in Pakistan – in 1959 and 2000 – but now have won back-to-back Tests in just two weeks on challenging, dry, flat and slow turning wickets at Rawalpindi and Multan.
“I think it was another great game, completely different conditions to the first Test match,” Stokes said. “We adapted to those conditions and stuck to the way that we wanted to operate. Last week obviously was a very flat wicket, whereas this one was a challenging one, but we still went out and applied ourselves the way that we wanted.”
England showed plenty of aggression on a flat Rawalpindi wicket to win by 74 runs as their batters plundered four centuries in a world-record 4-506 on the opening day.
Wood didn’t figure in the first Test as he was still recovering from a hip injury, but the fast bowler bowled with plenty of pace and struck thrice once Stokes took the second new ball with Pakistan still needing 109 runs.
Shakeel and Mohammad Nawaz, who made 45 off 62 balls, had raised Pakistan’s hopes of their highest-ever successful run chase at home with an 80-run sixth-wicket stand before Wood dismissed both batters with identical short balls down the leg side.
“I’m pretty sure I wouldn’t want to be facing bouncers at 145-150 kph with 20 minutes left [before lunch] even if I had faced as many balls as those two,” Stokes said. “That’s what we picked him [Wood] for, to come in, change the game and blow that wicket for us and it was an easy decision to make to bring him on.”
The third and final Test begins in Karachi on Saturday.
AP
