Pakistan v England: Noman Ali and Sajid Khan take all 20 wickets in historic Multan Test win

Shan Masood celebrates first win as Test captain as home team ease to 152-run victory

Spinners Sajid Khan, left, and Noman Ali celebrate after the final wicket of Shoaib Bashir as Pakistan defeated England in the second Test in Multan. Getty Images

Pakistan's Noman Ali, right, picked up eight wickets in the second innings to secure victory over England in Multan on Friday. AFP

Pakistan's Noman Ali celebrates the dismissal of England captain Ben Stokes. AFP

Noman Ali acknowledges the crowd after celebrates after picking up his fifth wicket. EPA

England captain Ben Stokes loses his bat before being stumped by Mohammad Rizwan off Noman Ali. EPA

Pakistan's Sajid Khan, centre, celebrates after taking the wicket of England's Ollie Pope. AP

Pakistan spinners Noman Ali and Sajid Khan enjoyed another record-breaking day in the field as they guided the home team to a comprehensive 152-run victory over England in the second Test in Multan on Friday to level the three-match series at 1-1.

Chasing 297 for victory on a track that was slow and dry, England were bundled out for 144 in the fourth day's morning session.

Left-arm spinner Noman was pick of the Pakistan bowlers, claiming 8-46 with classical spin bowling that relied on drift and turn.

England captain Ben Stokes was the top scorer with 37 but the visitors were fighting a losing battle against the turning ball.

Noman and player of the match Sajid Khan, who claimed seven wickets in the first innings, shared all 20 England wickets. It was the just the seventh instance in Test history of two bowlers taking all 20 wickets in a Test.

It also ended Pakistan's winless run in the country, registering their first victory at home since February 2021. That run had stretched to 11 matches and included four losses against England.

"I think the first one's always special, and it's come after some hard times, some rough times," Shan Masood said after his first Test win as Pakistan captain.

"Noman and Sajid coming in for their first games - it's never easy, and they seemed like two seasoned campaigners coming in and doing their job in the second innings.

"We didn't need a third bowler, so that just speaks volumes for them."

Noman finished with a match haul of 11 wickets while off-spinner Sajid took 2-93 to go with his 7-111 in the first innings as both spinners bowled unchanged.

The result also vindicated the wholesale changes to the Pakistan squad for the second Test. Debutant Kamran Ghulam made a superb century in the first innings after he replaced out-of-form Babar Azam at number four. Pakistan had included spinners Noman and Sajid even though both had not played red-ball cricket for nine months.

“For Kamran it’s never easy to replace one of the best batters (Babar Azam) in the world, but to get that century was special,” Masood said.

England capitulated against spin for the second time in the match after they resumed on 36-2 and needed a further improbable 261 runs for victory.

Sajid accepted a return catch from Ollie Pope on his second ball of the day before Noman cut through by claiming all the remaining seven wickets as the tourists failed to counter the spin through their sweeps and reverse sweeps.

Captain Stokes, who returned to lead the side after recovering from a torn hamstring, top-scored with 37 before falling in a bizarre fashion. Stokes charged down the wicket to Noman, but the bat flew out of the captain’s hand to backward square leg and he was stumped.

Brydon Carse smashed three sixes against Sajid and scored 27 before he edged Noman in the slips.

“We felt we were still in the game and came to chase that down,” Stokes said. “When Pakistan were ahead of the game they could really put their foot down. Tough ask for us, but the way we took the game on today was the only way we could win.”

Opener Ben Duckett hit an attacking hundred in the first innings but England could not get going on a weary pitch that was used for the ninth day as the hosts decided to use the same strip of consecutive Tests.

"Ben Duckett's first innings hundred showed us the way about how we were to chase this total down," Stokes said after the match.

"Obviously Pakistan, the guys who got the sweep shots out, made it very difficult to control the run rate and set fields to.

"So when you get extreme conditions like that, you've got to find a way to negate that spin, which I think we managed to do in some good parts.

"We would have liked to have gone on, especially myself and a couple of the guys who got starts, we might even be able to get closer, if not win the game."