Pakistan were still two runs behind with eight wickets down, and Razaullah’s nine sixes left England chasing 130
A 21-year-old debutant batting at No. 9 hit 81 off 63 balls and added 121 with Mohammad Abbas, turning a certain innings defeat at Edgbaston into a fourth-innings chase.
Sep 12, 2026
Pakistan were 318 for 8 in their second innings at Edgbaston on Friday, and still two runs behind England. By the close they led by 129 and England had a fourth innings to bat. The man who moved them there was playing his first Test match and batting at No. 9.
Two behind with two wickets standing
England had bowled Pakistan out for 133 inside 34 overs on the opening day and answered with 453, a lead of 320. Harry Brook made 75, Jamie Smith 69, Dan Lawrence 65, Emilio Gay 60, and Ollie Robinson 50 batting at No. 9. Everything about the match to that point suggested a third straight heavy England win.
Pakistan’s second innings began 0 for 2. Saim Ayub went to the first ball of it, caught by Brook off Robinson, and Abdullah Shafique followed three balls later. Azan Awais and Shan Masood then saw out a rain-shortened end to day two and carried the stand to 125 on Friday morning, Pakistan’s first century partnership of the series.
Masood made 95 from 148 balls with twelve fours before Lawrence took a diving catch at fourth slip off Gus Atkinson. Babar Azam made 76. Saud Shakeel added 29 before an Archer short ball found his glove. When Atkinson had Ghazi Ghori and Mohammad Imran caught behind within two overs of each other, Pakistan were 318 for 8, which in the arithmetic of the match meant two runs short of making England bat again.
Nine sixes, and a number Tim Southee has held since 2008
Razaullah is 21. He was called into the squad after the cull that followed the Lord’s Test, took four wickets in England’s first innings, and walked out at No. 9 with the game gone. He reached fifty from 43 balls, the fastest half-century by a Pakistan debutant, with five sixes in it.
Three of those came off Atkinson inside four balls. Another went off Josh Tongue. The first of back-to-back sixes off Jofra Archer brought up the fifty. He finished with nine in the innings, which equals the record Tim Southee set on debut against England at Napier in 2008, when he made 77 not out from 40 balls.
Mohammad Abbas, who has spent a long career being the opposite sort of cricketer, made a career-best 42 with two sixes of his own. The pair added 121 for the ninth wicket, the hundred of it arriving in 95 balls. England took the second new ball at 81 overs with Pakistan 30 in front, and got nothing from it for another 14.
Abbas went first, picking out Atkinson at backward point off Tongue. Razaullah then survived an lbw shout off Lawrence with a review he nearly forgot to take, the ball missing leg stump. Next delivery he advanced at Lawrence again and was stumped by Jordan Cox. Pakistan 449 all out in 96.4 overs, and the day was done.
What England have to do on Saturday
England need 130. Play starts at 3:30pm IST, and on a surface where Robinson has five wickets in the match for 69 runs and the ball has moved for both attacks, the total flatters the task a little. Two of Pakistan’s bowlers were making their Test debuts this week, and Razaullah’s 4 for 148 in the first innings came at better than six an over, so there are runs on offer for anyone who survives the new ball.
England keep the ball with Jordan Cox behind the stumps, Jamie Smith having injured a finger earlier in the match. The series itself is already gone. England won at Lord’s by 194 runs in late August to take it 2-0 with a match to spare, so Saturday settles only whether Pakistan go home whitewashed or with one afternoon they can point to.