Razaullah's Explosive Innings Revives Pakistan at Edgbaston

England set 130 after Razaullah turns dead rubber into street fight at Edgbaston

England v Pakistan, Third Rothesay Test, day three

Edgbaston: Pakistan 133 & 449; England 453

England need 130 runs to win

Razaullah walked in as Pakistan’s number nine. He walked off as the man who dragged a broken tour back to life and turned a formality into a contest.

With Pakistan still behind and eight down, the debutant launched into England with an 81 from 63 balls that crackled with intent and nerve. Nine times he cleared the rope, equalling Ben Stokes’ record for most sixes in a Test innings in England and matching Tim Southee’s mark for a Test debutant. By the time he was stumped charging Dan Lawrence in the evening gloom, Pakistan had surged to 449 and England’s apparently simple clean‑sweep script had been ripped up.

What should have been a quiet Friday drift to a three‑day finish became something else entirely. A Test match finally broke out.

Pakistan’s tour finally finds a heartbeat

At the start of play, Pakistan looked destined for another meek entry in a miserable series. They resumed 55-2, still 268 runs behind, and with the memory of their first‑innings 133 fresh in the mind. England had already flirted with a two‑day victory before the weather intervened on Thursday.

Instead, Pakistan’s top order dug in and then pushed back. Shan Masood and Azan Awais extended their third‑wicket stand to 125, batting with a calm defiance that had been utterly absent earlier in the tour. Awais, only 21, threaded the ball through the off side with promise and poise until he feathered Lawrence’s off‑spin down the leg side for 59.

Masood, batting in what is likely his final Test in the country where he went to school, was the anchor. He moved to 95 with a mixture of composure and timing, only to be denied a century by a moment of brilliance: Lawrence flung himself at gully and clung on one‑handed off Gus Atkinson. A cruel end, but a statement innings.

Babar Azam joined Masood and looked every inch the class act for his 76. England tried their lengths, then turned to the short ball either side of tea. The tactic unsettled Pakistan’s captain. A Josh Tongue bouncer finally did for him, a dismissal that seemed to confirm the familiar pattern: Pakistan fight, then fold.

Not this time.

‘Razball’ lights up Edgbaston

At 318-8, Pakistan were still two runs behind, with more than two hours left in the day. England’s bowlers had been made to work, but the game looked under control. The Hollies Stand had found its voice, yet the contest felt as if it was drifting towards inevitability.

Then Razaullah changed the temperature of the ground.

The 21‑year‑old, one of seven new faces drafted in for this Test, had already impressed with his pace in England’s first innings. With the bat, he went from curiosity to sensation. He started with clean, uncomplicated swings, then kept going, turning freewheeling hitting into a full‑blown counter‑attack.

He and Muhammad Abbas added 121 for the eighth wicket, a stand that veered from audacious to absurd. Abbas chipped in with 42 and two sixes of his own, reverse‑sweeping Lawrence and then launching Ollie Robinson over cow corner. Pakistan’s tail, mocked for its fragility all tour, suddenly swung like a club side on a Friday evening.

Razaullah led the carnage. Atkinson was launched into the Edgbaston building site, three sixes in an over that had the crowd roaring and England’s field scattered. Jofra Archer tried to respond with pace and intimidation; Razaullah simply hit him straight back over his head, twice, as if swatting away a nuisance.

England’s discipline frayed. Their lines vanished. Their plans dissolved into a blur of bouncers and boundary riders.

England lose their grip

For most of the day, England’s attack had done enough. Tongue, who took 4-42 in the first innings, again found life with the short ball. Robinson held his length and shape. The catching, particularly Lawrence’s grab to remove Masood, stayed sharp. Pakistan were not allowed easy runs; they earned them.

Then came the eighth‑wicket stand and with it a collapse in England’s clarity.

Fields went back. Bouncers flew. When England tried to pitch the ball up, they missed the stumps or met stout defence. When they went short, Razaullah and Abbas swung hard and often. The second new ball arrived, and with it a baffling decision: Robinson, in the form of his life, watched as Root handed it to Lawrence.

Archer’s frustration was obvious as he disappeared into the stands. Root briefly left the field. Atkinson ended up banging in bouncers with eight men on the rope, a picture of a side suddenly devoid of ideas.

The pressure finally told, not on Pakistan, but on England.

Abbas eventually poked Tongue to point as the light dimmed, ending a partnership that had transformed the mood of the series. The drama did not stop there. Razaullah cracked Lawrence for his record‑equalling ninth six, then overturned an lbw decision to huge cheers from the Edgbaston crowd. His dismissal, stumped charging once more, brought a rapturous ovation and Pakistan’s innings to a close.

From 0-2 in their second innings and 133 all out first time around, Pakistan had not only avoided humiliation; they had given themselves a total and, crucially, a cause.

A chase with an edge

England will still back themselves. They need only 130 on a surface that has not yet fallen apart, with a batting line‑up that piled up 453 in their first innings through Harry Brook, Jamie Smith, Lawrence, Tom Prest Gay and Robinson.

But this is no longer a procession. Razaullah’s late surge has given Pakistan something tangible to defend and something emotional to cling to. The bowlers who toiled through their first full day in the field of the series now have a target and a spark.

England left the field relieved to have finally ended the chaos, yet chastened by how quickly control slipped away. Root’s new regime, barely challenged in this series until now, suddenly has questions to answer about tactics, selection and temperament under fire.

On Saturday, they will walk out needing 130 runs for a 3-0 clean sweep. Pakistan, written off for days, will come hunting those 10 wickets.

After Razaullah’s eruption, who really looks under pressure now?