Razaullah’s counterattack forces England to chase 130 in the third Test

A match transformed at Edgbaston

England will face a target of 130 when the third Test against Pakistan continues at Edgbaston, a position that looked remote after the visitors were dismissed for 133 in their first innings. England replied with 453, but Pakistan’s second-innings 449 changed the match before stumps on day three. The official match record placed Pakistan 129 runs ahead at the close.

The reversal was most clearly embodied by debutant Razaullah. After taking 4 for 148 in England’s first innings, he struck 81 from 63 balls at number nine. His innings contained four fours and nine sixes. It turned Pakistan’s recovery into a fourth-innings assignment for England and ensured that the decisive arithmetic was no longer an innings margin but a target.

From 0 for 2 to a substantial second innings

Pakistan began their second innings with a deficit of 320 and then lost Saim Ayub and Abdullah Shafique without scoring, leaving the side 0 for 2. Azan Awais and Shan Masood supplied the first major repair. Awais made 59, while Masood scored 95. Their work gave Pakistan a platform after the opening-over damage and moved the innings away from the immediate threat of another collapse.

Babar Azam then added 76, extending the resistance before England regained control. By the time Pakistan slipped to 318 for 8, they were still two runs behind on the first-innings comparison. At that point, England had removed most of the batting and remained one partnership away from retaining an innings lead. What followed altered both the scale and the form of the task England would face.

The sequence matters because Pakistan’s final total was not produced by one isolated late assault. Awais, Masood and Babar had already absorbed enough of the deficit to make a recovery possible. Razaullah’s contribution then accelerated that recovery at the point when the innings was again close to ending. The second innings therefore had two distinct phases: top-order reconstruction and lower-order counterattack.

Razaullah’s debut becomes the centre of the day

Razaullah arrived with Pakistan eight wickets down and still short of England’s total. He did not merely stay with the established scoring pattern. His 81 came from 63 balls, with nine of his scoring shots clearing the boundary and another four reaching it. The Pakistan Cricket Board reported that he reached his half-century from 43 balls.

That rate changed the use of the remaining overs. Every addition beyond 320 in Pakistan’s second innings increased the target England would have to chase, and Razaullah moved the total rapidly through that threshold. His innings ended only when he was the last batter dismissed, with Pakistan on 449 after 96.4 overs.

His batting also followed a significant first-innings bowling contribution. Razaullah had taken four England wickets for 148 runs, giving him a direct role in both central parts of Pakistan’s match: limiting England’s first-innings total and then building the lead. The combination makes his debut the clearest individual thread through the third Test’s day-three reversal, without obscuring the earlier second-innings work by Masood, Babar and Awais.

The 121-run ninth-wicket stand that changed the equation

Razaullah’s attack was sustained by Mohammad Abbas at the other end. Together they added 121 for the ninth wicket, taking Pakistan from 318 for 8 to 439 for 9. Abbas contributed 42 from 67 balls, while the partnership carried Pakistan from two runs behind to 119 runs ahead before Abbas was dismissed.

The stand was decisive because it did more than delay England. It erased the final part of Pakistan’s deficit and then created almost the entire fourth-innings target. After Abbas fell, Pakistan added another 10 runs before Razaullah was stumped as the final wicket. That left the second innings at 449 and the overall lead at 129.

The numbers also show why the partnership, rather than only the individual score, is the proper unit for understanding the reversal. Razaullah supplied the majority of the attacking runs, but Abbas’s 42 and his presence across 121 runs allowed the innings to continue. Without that shared resistance, Pakistan could not have moved so far beyond parity.

Why England need 130, not 129

The target follows directly from the two completed-innings totals. England’s 453 gave them a 320-run advantage over Pakistan’s first-innings 133. Pakistan then made 449, which was 129 more than the amount needed to cancel that deficit. England therefore require one run more than Pakistan’s lead: 130 to win.

This is the precise match state at day-three stumps. Pakistan’s innings has ended, England’s target is fixed, and the scale of the turnaround can be measured from both of Pakistan’s low points: 133 all out in the first innings and 0 for 2 in the second. Reddy News readers can follow subsequent score updates through the live scores page and find broader coverage in the cricket section.

What day three changed

Day three converted a match dominated by England’s 320-run first-innings advantage into a fourth-innings chase. Pakistan’s 449 did not remove England’s opportunity to win, but it required the hosts to bat again and put a defined target in front of them. That distinction is the essential outcome of the day; no forecast is needed to describe how substantially the match position moved.

The recovery also had a clear structure. Masood’s 95, Babar’s 76 and Awais’s 59 rebuilt the innings after the score fell to 0 for 2. Razaullah and Abbas then turned 318 for 8 into 439 for 9 through their 121-run stand. Razaullah’s final dismissal at 449 completed an innings in which the debutant’s 81 and first-innings 4 for 148 gave him an unusually prominent role on both sides of the scorecard.