Debutant Ahmed impresses as Leach takes four for England
\n Islamabad
\nEngland spinners Jack Leach and Rehan Ahmed shared six wickets between them on Saturday as Pakistan were dismissed for 304 on the opening day of the third and final Test in Karachi.
\nLeach grabbed 4-140 while teenager Ahmed finished with 2-89 after Pakistan won the toss and batted on a slow turner at the National Stadium.
\nFor Pakistan, skipper Babar Azam top scored with 78 and Agha Salman made 56. England lead the three-match series 2-0.
\nAhmed had got his first wicket for England before Pakistan reached 204-5 at tea, making history by becoming the youngest player to debut for the side at 16 years and 126 days.
\nHe dismissed Saud Shakeel, who failed to keep a defensive shot down as Ollie Pope dived forward to take a brilliant catch, in his seventh over for 23.
\nAt the break, skipper Babar Azam was unbeaten on 71 and Agha Salman on one after Pakistan won the toss and opted to bat on a National Stadium pitch that has a slow turn.
\nMohammad Rizwan also failed as he lofted a catch off a Joe Root full toss for 19.
\nIn the first session, Pakistan lost three wickets. Azhar Ali \u2014 playing his last Test \u2014 fell at the stroke of lunch when he gloved a catch to a diving wicketkeeper Ben Foakes off pacer Ollie Robinson.
\nAzhar and Azam added 71 for the third wicket, repairing the innings after opener Abdullah Shafique fell for eight and Shan Masood 30.
\nSensing the pitch would take spin, England started the attack with left-arm spinner Jack Leach, who trapped Shafique leg-before in the sixth over of the day. Masood fell to the trap of short bowling as he pulled fast bowler Mark Wood straight into the hands of deep fine-leg fielder Leach.
\nMasood hit five boundaries while Azhar had six hits to the ropes.
\nAbrar struck with the fifth ball of the innings, trapping Crawley in front with a flat legbreak, but Pope and Ben Duckett survived until stumps. Pakistan reviewed the final ball of the day, an Abrar googly which struck Duckett on the body as he got down to sweep, but ball-tracking technology confirmed it had pitched outside his leg stump.
\nHard-pressed to avoid their first-ever whitewash in a home series, Pakistan made four changes with Azhar, Masood, Mohammad Wasim and Nauman Ali drafted in the side.
\nEngland, who lead the series 2-0, brought Foakes and Ahmed into the side.
\nBefore Ahmed, Brian Close was the youngest England debutant at 18 years and 149 days when he played against New Zealand in 1949.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Debutant Ahmed impresses as Leach takes four for England Islamabad England spinners Jack Leach and Rehan Ahmed shared six wickets between them on Saturday as Pakistan were dismissed for 304 on the opening day of the third and final Test in Karachi. Leach grabbed 4-140 while teenager Ahmed finished with 2-89 after Pakistan won the […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":301896,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-301882","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-sports"},"yoast_head":"\n