Razaullah's Explosive Innings Revives Pakistan's Chances at Edgbaston
For two and a half days this series felt like a formality. On Friday evening at Edgbaston, a 21-year-old debutant turned it into a contest.
England will need 130 runs to win the Third Rothesay Test after Pakistan, seemingly drifting towards another meek defeat, were yanked into relevance by a ferocious, fearless innings from Razaullah that rattled the hosts and electrified Birmingham.
Pakistan, 133 all out in the first innings and 0-2 at the start of the second, closed on 449 thanks to the number nine’s astonishing 81 from 63 balls, an innings that tied Ben Stokes’ record for the most sixes in a Test knock in England. Nine times the ball sailed into the stands. Nine times England’s bowlers and captain Joe Root were left searching for answers.
The tourists, who had not passed 200 or batted more than 51 overs in the series before this, finally produced a day worthy of the occasion. They leave England with a chase that is manageable on paper, but laced with enough jeopardy to keep the Hollies Stand roaring into Saturday.
Masood, Awais and Babar restore some pride
The day began with Pakistan 55-2, still 268 behind and staring at the prospect of a two-day defeat avoided only by Thursday’s bad weather. Instead, a proper Test match broke out.
Shan Masood and Azan Awais settled in, absorbed England’s probing lines and slowly turned the game from procession to battle. Their third-wicket stand grew to 125, Awais looking every inch a long-term prospect as he drove crisply through the off side.
It took a leg-side tickle to separate them, Awais glancing Dan Lawrence’s off-spin to the keeper for 59. Masood, batting with the composure of a man determined to leave a mark in what is likely his final Test in the country where he went to school, kept Pakistan afloat.
He added another 89 with Babar Azam, who unfurled strokes that reminded everyone why his name sits among the elite. Babar’s 76 had authority and timing, but England found a way to discomfort him. Root’s side went short either side of tea, peppering the captain with bouncers until Josh Tongue forced the mistake, Babar falling to a rising ball that he could not quite control.
Masood’s own dismissal was brutal on the left-hander. Five short of a century, he slashed at Gus Atkinson and watched Lawrence fling himself in the gully to pluck a one-handed stunner. From there, Pakistan wobbled. Four wickets went down for 40. The script pointed to an early finish.
Then Razaullah walked in.
A debutant tears up the script
Razaullah had already impressed with the ball in England’s first-innings 453, where he took 4-148. With the bat, he was supposed to hang around, maybe chip in a few. Instead, he detonated.
What began as a bit of freewheeling lower-order fun turned, over the course of an hour, into a full-blown assault that changed the feel of the match and the mood inside the ground.
He found an ally in Muhammad Abbas, who played his own part in the chaos with 42 that included two sixes and some outrageous reverse-sweeps off Lawrence. The pair added 121 for the eighth wicket, shredding England’s plans and their discipline.
Atkinson, so sharp earlier, was launched repeatedly into the Edgbaston building site, three times in one over. Jofra Archer, usually the hunter, became the hunted as Razaullah hammered him back over his head for successive sixes. Anything short sat up. Anything full disappeared. Anything in between went the distance anyway.
England’s attack, dominant all series, suddenly looked bereft. Fields scattered to the rope. Eight men patrolled the boundary as Atkinson resorted to a barrage of bouncers. Root, whose captaincy has been largely untroubled in this new regime, found himself short of ideas and, briefly, off the field.
Robinson, in the form of his life with the ball, watched as the second new ball went instead to Lawrence. The decision puzzled many and did nothing to halt the onslaught. When England tried to return to the stumps, they either missed or were met with stout defence.
For everyone not wearing an England shirt, it was compulsive viewing.
A frantic finish under fading light
As the light dimmed and the noise rose, it looked as though Razaullah and Abbas might bat through to the close. Pakistan’s humiliation had not only been averted; the tourists were daring to dictate terms.
Tongue finally broke the stand when Abbas poked to point. It barely slowed Razaullah. He kept swinging, kept clearing the ropes, kept dragging the game away from the inevitability that had hung over this series.
The climax came in a blur. Razaullah cracked Lawrence for his ninth six to equal Tim Southee’s record for the most sixes by a Test debutant in a single innings. He then survived an lbw decision on review, drawing a huge roar from the crowd. The next act, at last, brought his downfall: stumped charging Lawrence, the man who had earlier prised out Awais and helped remove Masood.
Razaullah walked off to a rapturous ovation, a new star of Pakistan cricket announced not with a gritty 40, but with an 81 that scorched itself into the memory of everyone inside Edgbaston.
England chastened, but still in control
For all the late chaos, England remain strong favourites. They bowled well for long stretches, holding their length when the ball moved and timing their short-ball tactics to unsettle Babar. They took sharp catches, they stayed patient. For most of the day they were simply repelled by Pakistan’s best batting of the tour.
The problem came once Razaullah and Abbas took charge. Plans frayed. Fields lost shape. The hosts, so clinical earlier in the series, lost the plot at the very moment Pakistan finally showed some fight.
By the time the last wicket fell, England’s players dragged themselves off the field looking relieved and slightly dazed. The 3-0 clean sweep is still there for them. So is the chance to show they can close out a game that has, at last, started to bite back.
On Saturday, they will chase 130. On this pitch, with this batting line-up, it should be routine. After Razaullah’s arrival, nothing about this Test feels routine anymore.
