Eng vs Pak 2nd Test: England reach 7/1 as rain washes out day's play

Southampton: England reached 7/1 against Pakistan at Lunch on Day 4 of the rain-affected second Test at the Ageas Bowl here on Sunday which saw no further play being possible due to wet outfield.

No play was possible in the second session as groundstaff concluded it would take 2.5-3 hours to get the pitch ready and longer to mop up the outfield. At the break, Dom Sibley was batting on 2 with Zak Crawley on 5. England trail Pakistan by 229 runs. No play was possible on Day 3 because of persistent rain and bad light.

Resuming at 223/9, Mohammad Rizwan top-scored for the tourists with a fighting 72 as Stuart Broad and James Anderson returned figures of 4/56 and 3/60 respectively to bowl out Pakistan for 236.

England lost Rory Burns (0) in the first over itself as Shaheen Shah Afridi had the left hander caught at second slip by Asad Shafiq.

Only 5 overs were possible before the skies opened up again and early lunch was taken.On Day 2, England made quick work of the Pakistan tail after Babar Azam's dismissal by getting rid of Yasir Shah and Shaheen Afridi in quick succession. However, Rizwan went on the counter after that helped his team past the 200-run mark.

Early Tea was taken after the umpires led the players off due to bad light. Broad managed to make a breakthrough in the first full over of the session with the wicket of Mohammad Abbas but at the end of that over, the umpires took the players off again due to bad light. They never came back and about two hours later, stumps was called.

Brief scores: Pakistan 236 (Mohammad Rizwan 72, Abid Ali 60, Babar Azam 47; Stuart Broad 4/56, James Anderson 3/60) vs England 7/1 (Dom Sibley 2 batting, Zak Crawley 5 batting)