Seamer Mark Wood up for Misbah-uk-Haq battle after Pakistan skipper hits century on day one of second Test
England seamer Mark Wood refused to be too dejected despite a hundred from skipper Misbah-ul-Haq swinging the pendulum in Pakistan’s favour after day one of the second Test in Dubai yesterday.
Misbah reached his ninth Test ton with two sixes and a reverse sweep in the final over of the day as Pakistan closed on 282-4, while opener Shan Masood and Younis Khan both struck half-centuries.
He shared an unbroken fifth-wicket stand of 104 with Asad Shafiq, who finished on 46 not out, to help the hosts recover from the treacherous position of 85-3 shortly after lunch.
“All in all, I don’t think we can be too disheartened,” said Wood.
“We only got four wickets so I cannot say it has been a brilliant day, but we stuck at it and can hold our heads high. If we could have had one more wicket, we’d have said it was a really good day.
“But I think we bowled quite well as a group and we know that they have got a bowler at No8, so if we can get a couple of wickets early in the morning then hopefully we can knock the tail over.”
Misbah, who averages more than 57 as Pakistan captain, underpinned the innings, hitting eight fours and clearing the ropes five times in his knock of 102 not out, taking his tally of Test sixes to 60 which equalled the record held by team-mate Younis.
At the age of 41, Misbah also became the oldest Test centurion since Australia’s Bobby Simpson in 1978, and after initially looking uncomfortable against England’s seamers, he adopted an offensive mindset against the tourists’ spin department.
“A couple of times I tried to rough up Misbah, but he got the better of me so it’s 1-0 to him,” added Wood.
“It will be interesting to see how Misbah plays [today] because he seemed to have a lot of dot balls against the seamers and attack the spin. It’ll be interesting to see how he plays if we choose to go for spin early and if he’ll try to attack again.”
All-rounder Moeen Ali dismissed Mohammad Hafeez for 19 as the opener looped an inside edge to Jonny Bairstow at short leg, while the same fielder snaffled a superb one-handed catch to give Ben Stokes the scalp of first Test double-centurion Shoaib Malik.
Seamer James Anderson took his 418th Test wicket, moving him above India spinner Harbhajan Singh to ninth on the all-time list as Masood departed for 54, as Wood had Younis caught behind by wicketkeeper Jos Buttler while on 56.