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MULTAN: Pakistan’s red-ball head coach Jason Gillespie pinned high hopes on ‘fresh’ fast bowlers to hit back at England in the ongoing first Test, underway at Multan Cricket Stadium.
The first Test of the three-match series between Pakistan and England is heading towards a draw as after three days of action the two sides are yet to complete their set of first innings.
Opting to bat first, Pakistan piled up a humongous 556 all out on the back of centuries from skipper Shan Masood, Abdullah Shafique and Salman Ali Agha.
England, famous for their aggressive approach in Test cricket, in response, dominated Pakistan bowlers and came in touching distance to the home side’s first innings total by accumulating 492/3 by the end of the third day.
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Day 3 of the Multan Test was a stiff challenge for Pakistan bowlers as they managed to claim just two wickets and conceded 396 runs but their head coach Jason Gillespie remained hopeful that their pacers, who according to him, are ‘fresh’ will create some opportunities on the penultimate day.
“We are still 60 runs ahead. We expect England will just go ahead and bat till they give us a significant lead. We anticipate that but we cannot do anything about them, we need to be up and running the first ball tomorrow,” said Gillespie.
“We still have a ball that is not too old so take a couple of wickets and go from there. Abrar bowled a lot of overs so our fast bowlers will come fresh tomorrow,” he added.
Meanwhile, England’s opening batter Ben Duckett expressed his optimism that the visitors will try to force a result and pinned high hopes on the deteriorated day five pitch.
“I think we will keep batting tomorrow as well. We have a whole day. We need to go past their score with a significant lead and then we will have one day to bowl them out on a day five pitch that might give us some spin and inconsistent bounce,” said Duckett.
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