Haren
The mercurials of world cricket are stabilising. Pakistan cricket has stopped pulling off positive surprises.
Things were smooth for two days in Multan when the hosts asked England to bowl and reached 556 – their highest score since the manic Rawalpindi Test against the same opposition in 2022.
Pakistan took 149 overs to get there in nearly two days. In almost the same time and only six additional deliveries, England whooshed to a jaw-dropping 823/7d on Thursday, the fourth-highest Test total.
The mayhem on Day 4 culminated with two record-breaking knocks and a partnership for the ages. And Pakistan, in capricious but fairly obvious nature these days, drew closer to defeat from a position where no outright result was expected.
The many milestones of Multan 😍
Rewriting the history books 📝@IGcom | #EnglandCricket pic.twitter.com/GIFLZvgAlI
— England Cricket (@englandcricket) October 11, 2024
Crumbling to 220 all out on Friday after a 115-run deficit hung before them overnight, Pakistan suffered the ignominy of having the highest first-innings Test total to result in a defeat. England’s gigantic 823/7d, the fastest of the 26 700-plus totals in Test history at 5.48 RPO, consequently became the second-highest Test score to enforce an outright win.
Highest first-innings totals in Test defeats
| Team | Score | Loss Margin | RPO | Opposition | Ground | Year |
| Bangladesh | 595/8d | 7 wickets | 3.91 | v New Zealand | Wellington | 2017 |
| Australia | 586 | 10 runs | 3.39 | v England | Sydney | 1894 |
| Australia | 556 | 4 wickets | 4.37 | v India | Adelaide | 2003 |
| Pakistan | 556 | innings and 47 runs | 3.73 | v England | Multan | 2024 |
| New Zealand | 553 | 5 wickets | 3.8 | v England | Nottingham | 2022 |
England all the way
Since that Rawalpindi Test in December 2022, the early days of the ‘Bazball’ fad, England have smashed 500 runs in an innings with a 5-plus run rate on four occasions. Save for those accomplishments, there have only been five other instances in the same bracket in all of Test history combined.
The ongoing 2024 calendar year is the fastest-scoring Test season for batters in history, building on the now second-placed 2023 season which held a cumulative 3.52 run rate across 34 Tests, 28 of which had a winner. In 33 Tests this year, the combined run rate has jumped up to 3.62 across 32 wins and a solitary draw. England have been at the forefront of this radical shift, leading the batting strike rates in both years.
| Highest Test batting run rates in a calendar year | ||||||
| Mat | Won | Draw | Runs | Ave | RPO | Year |
| 33 | 32 | 1 | 33176 | 29.48 | 3.62 | 2024 |
| 34 | 28 | 6 | 35273 | 32.5 | 3.52 | 2023 |
| 49 | 37 | 12 | 52118 | 33.53 | 3.38 | 2005 |
Their latest act of belligerence had Root and young superstar Harry Brook construct a record partnership with contrasting individual methods.
Their 454-run association was the highest-ever for the fourth wicket or lower in Tests and the fourth-highest ever. It also bettered a 90-year record held by Don Bradman and Bill Ponsford (451 v England at Oval) for the highest Test partnership away from home. Root and Brook also became the first English pair to record two 300-plus Test stands, having stacked up a 302-run stand against New Zealand in Wellington last year.
Multan’s new Sultan
A stupendous start to Brook’s Test career was impressive when he reached 1000 Test runs in only 17 innings. He could only add 558 in his next 13 but Brook’s incredible 317 has put him on course to become the quickest batter since 1939 to reach 2000 runs.
With his marathon effort, Brook’s average spiked from 53.72 to 62.50 in two days. His 303-ball triple hundred was only bettered by the swashbuckling Virender Sehwag’s 278-ball triple against South Africa in 2008 in terms of speed.
Building on Sehwag’s knock in Multan in 2004, a blistering 309 off 375 balls, Brook has recorded the highest score by a visiting batter at the venue. It was also his fourth hundred in as many Tests in Pakistan, making him the first batter to achieve the feat in the county.
Unstoppable Root
Meanwhile, the 32-year-old Root is catching up to Mt. Tendulkar rapidly – only 3257 separates him from the top. His 35th Test ton propelled him past Alastair Cook as England’s highest run-getter. Root wore down the Pakistan bowlers to record his highest Test score (262) with his sixth double hundred, one short of Wally Hammond’s English record.
But Root’s latest masterclass was a testament to his evolving legacy as a Test maestro. The knock marked his third double-hundred in Asia, the most among all visiting batters in the continent. Root has struck one each in India (2021), Sri Lanka (2021) and Pakistan, making him only the third batter to achieve the feat after Sehwag and Mahela Jayawardene.
More importantly, Root was not carried away by the Multan flatbed as he stuck to his old-school temper to buy runs. Only 68 of Root’s 262 runs came in boundaries. It was the 100th 250-plus knock in Tests and interestingly held the lowest boundary percentage (25.95) among all of them. In contrast, Brook’s triple ton, the 101st innings of the kind, was built on the back of 29 fours and three sixes, making up 42 per cent of runs in boundaries.
It will be incredibly challenging for the dazed hosts to turn up in four days for the second Test at the same venue before moving to Rawalpindi for the third. With the strips playing right up England’s alley, Root and Co. are primed for more colossal batting records this month.
