Key events
Ben Duckett: “It was fitting Stokes was there at the end, he wanted to hit a six to go past Baz, (Brendan McCullum) he wanted it bad! Me and Zak tried to be positive, his first-ball four set the tone and we got off to a flyer. I’m very happy, I tried to stick to my game, if I was over critical I left some runs out there. Abrar is a good bowler but we probably gifted him a few wickets in his first innings. The mindset of this team, it’s easy to come into. I’ve never played in a team like this… all the pressure comes off you.”
Illuminating and revealing words on how England’s approach can really free up a player.
The nature and scale of this victory for England begins to sink in:
A genuinely remarkable achievement by Ben Stokes, Brendan McCullum and the England team. No side in history has pulled off a clean sweep in Pakistan, and to do it in such style. Extraordinary. pic.twitter.com/Ge0HnjH2Z2
— daniel norcross (@norcrosscricket) December 20, 2022
Broad and Butcher have their say:
“It’s a stunning achievement, it really is” ✨
Stuart Broad and Mark Butcher hail the England side for the entertaining cricket they played to win the series 3-0 in Pakistan 👏 pic.twitter.com/n4G30AmfWH
– Sky Sports Cricket (@SkyCricket) December 20, 2022
Nasser Hussain has just done a quick interview with Ben Duckett, I’ll post some of the quotes shortly.
Just time to fire up your emails before the interviews and presentations.
“Morning James, morning all!
Good morning Em Jackson.
What will last longer than today’s play? My jug of coffee. (Was this the case?)
Well done England, well done Pakistan – there’ll be days for you but its not today – and it’s made December so far having cricket on when starting work early.
And RIP Terry Hall, my Dad had the Mobil petrol station 80’s tape & Ghost Town was on that, excellent song with deep meaning even today.”
Pakistan has been brilliant And the series has been played in a lovely spirit. It’s been 17 long years since England last played here but, as Mike Atherton says on the tv comms, it has almost been worth the wait for what we have seen over the past few weeks.
Young Rehan Ahmed would scoff at this particular Specials number obviously.
England win by eight wickets!
Stokes tries to finish it in style with a six down the ground but it just falls short and plugs a few feet from the boundary. Duckett now has the chance to hit the winning runs and – HE DOES IT IN STYLE – a crunching slap through the covers for four! England take the game and the series, the two batters embrace. Wow. That is some win. Stick with us for plenty of reaction.
Absolutely nuts to think that England’s men started this calendar year having already lost the Ashes & hustling to avoid a whitewash, & ends w/ its Test captain having won 9/10 Tests & trying to break the record (held by his coach) for no . of 6s in Test cricket. #PAKvENG
— Isabelle Westbury (@izzywestbury) December 20, 2022
It is a bit, isn’t it?
27th over: England 161-2 (Duckett 76, Stokes 32) Stokes slashes Mohammad Wasim through the covers and the target is now down to single figures. Duckett nudges and nurdles for a couple, he’s been brilliant on this tour, just pipped to player of the series by young Harry Brook I should think.
25th over: England 155-2 (Duckett 75, Stokes 27) Normal service resumes as seven runs are taken off Abrar. It would be nice for Stokes to be there at the end… oh just as I type that Stoke has a wild mow down the ground and is shelled at long-on! Tricky chance, but turfed. This will all be over very soon.
24th over: England 148-2 (Duckett 73, Stokes 22) A lesser spotted maiden! Fair play to Mohammad Wasim who sends down six dots, keeping Duckett honest with a tight line around off stump. On we go!
Don’t rule it out…
A thought: Stokes might get a bowler to hit the winning runs here.
He had Jimmy Anderson padded up at one point during the summer because he’d never hit the winning runs in a Test before. Not sure who’d get the honor today, but every chance I reckon… #PakvEng
– Vithushan Ehantharajah (@Vitu_E) December 20, 2022
24th over: England 148-2 (Duckett 73, Stokes 22) England are easing towards a historic victory, Stokes and Duckett picking off the runs, less than twenty runs needed now to complete the victory and take the series 3-0. Remarkable when you see it written down like that.
23rd over: England 144-2 (Duckett 70, Stokes 21) Six more runs from off Wasim as Duckett drives powerfully down the ground. Stokes is happy to let his junior partner do the damage, he collects a couple.
22nd over: England 138-2 (Duckett 64, Stokes 21) Ben Duckett has come out of the traps incredibly quickly, peeling off two fours against Abrar. England making short work of this target.
Premble – The Trip
Hello and welcome to the final knockings of this Karachi Test and what has been a hugely enjoyable (especially if you are an England player/supporter) Test series.
Last week I overslept got my timings askew In the wee small hours and was twenty minutes late to fire up the OBO, fortunately nothing much was missed. Nevertheless, lesson well and truly learned, I’m tapping this preamble out pre-pillow rather than post alarm and with good reason – England need the small matter of 55 runs to complete a historic 3-0 series victory and the way they approached the run chase last night – plundering 112 runs in 17 overs – suggests that they could well wrap this up in minutes rather than hours. In short – it isn’t one to press snooze too.
Yesterday was a memorable and poignant day, a case of saying ‘hello’ to Rehan Ahmed, England’s teenage leg-spinning sensation, who at 18 years and 128 days became the youngest men’s Test cricketer to pick up a five-wicket haul on debut. His five for 48 from just shy of fifteen overs tilted the game decisively towards Stokes’s side. Oh, and he even came out for a bat too. Course he did.
At the other end of the cricketing journey, it was time to say ‘goodbye’ to 37 year old Azhar Ali, a fine servant to Pakistani cricket over the past decade, Ali’s last appearance at the crease in Tests yielded zero runs but a guard of honor and a solitary tear. It might not have ended how he hoped but he can look back proudly on a stellar career, over 7,000 runs and 19 centuries will bring some succour.
Will England wrap this up before dawn over here in the UK? Will Pakistan pick up a flurry of wickets to set up a barnstorming finish? Will I even bother to shake off the duvet and feign some degree of professionalism? There’s only one way to find out. But first, to bed. For tonight we sleep the sleep of… err about four hours.
Play gets underway at 5am UK time (gulp)