Let Noman wheel away unchanged

2 minute read

Zahid Mahmood took a wicket today. That was quite a big moment. It’s been a while since anyone other than Noman Ali or Sajid Khan took one for Pakistan. Zahid was lucky to even get a bowl, quite frankly.

In the second Test, Noman Ali bowled 44.3 overs and Sajid Khan got through 43.2 overs. The next heaviest workload among the Pakistan bowlers was shouldered by Zahid Mahmood and Aamer Jamal, who bowled six overs each.

Today, Noman and Sajid opened the bowling and honestly, for a while there, it seemed like that was all we were going to get. Ben Stokes had remarked before the match that he already knew which ends they were going to bowl from simply from looking at which parts of the pitch had been naturally worn by the groundstaff’s natural raking.

Sajid bowled 29.2 overs and took six wickets. Noman bowled 28 overs, but could only muster three, which meant Zahid had to deliver 10 whole overs, within which he took the crucial wicket of Jamie Smith (who continues to fulfil his brief).

Spinners who operate in tandem like this are frequently and wearyingly labelled “spin twins” but Noman and Sajid are certainly not identical.

We’re not exactly in Arnold Schwarzenegger/Danny DeVito territory here, but we put it to you that Noman has a slight bus conductor vibe about him…

… while Sajid does not…

Suppose it depends what bus you get.

We’re pretty sure Sajid prefers the limelight though. This is how he celebrates his wickets.

England are currently bowling plenty of spin themselves, inching their way towards Pakistan’s best batter.

Did you see… the butter/dragonfly that tried to run out Zak Crawley?