Pakistan would have been painfully reminded that the best route a bad day can take in cricket is to limit itself to the field only. Unfortunately for them, that was not what happened in Beckenham on the second day of the warm-up game. The visitors were somewhat uninspiring with the bat but what headlined the day more was their captain Babar Azam hurting his hand and being ruled out of the remainder of the game.
Babar’s injury overshadows Pakistan’s batting
Babar, who was batting on five off 16 balls, was taken off the field on day two after a delivery from Hampshire fast bowler Manny Lumsden struck his right hand, the same hand he hurt during the second Test against West Indies just a couple of weeks ago.
Without him, Pakistan could only get to 238 runs, 67 runs short of PCC Select XI’s first innings total. Abdullah Shafique top-scored with 61 off 132, with only Imam-ul-Haq besides him getting past 30 runs.
The second day began with Azan Awais nicking a Matt Fisher delivery to the keeper, something that Imam-ul-Haq followed shortly after. With Babar’s injury also sending him back to the hut, Pakistan were left struggling at 119 for two with one batter down by the time lunch began.
Shafique completed his fifty after lunch and retired not out, but a sudden surge of wickets fell afterwards as Lumsden and Shoaib Bashir paired up to play havoc with Pakistan. The two bowlers grabbed five wickets within ten overs as the visitors’ middle order could only add 48 runs to the board. With Pakistan reeling at 212 for seven, Shafique was allowed to return but he could only chip in seven more runs before a Saif Zaib delivery did him in.
Ghazi Ghori, who had scored a crucial 27 runs, was the last wicket to fall as Pakistan failed to overhaul the first innings total.
PCC XI extend their lead
PCC XI openers strode out soon afterwards looking to build on their lead but Emilio Gay decided to return with another duck, his second in the game. The scoring was slow as Tom Haines and James Rew could only score 30 in ten overs, only 12 of which came off running. After Haines returned cheaply, becoming a victim to Sajid Khan, PCC decided to escalate the run-scoring. Rew, who had cleared the ropes in the previous two overs, joined Caleb Falconer to bring the scoring rate up.
There were more boundaries and more running between the wickets. The score in these ten overs had almost tripled. What’s more is that even though Rew departed shortly after, the incoming batter Saif Zaib refused to slow down.
The day ended with Zaib and Falconer at the crease and PCC XI having a lead of 195 runs.
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