Lunch Pakistan 79 for 2 (Ayub 40*, Ghulam 29*, Leach 2-35) vs England
Jack Leach made the early running for England on Multan's re-used pitch, claiming two wickets in the first hour of Pakistan's innings to confirm both teams' suspicions that this surface would prove more conducive to spin bowling than had been the case throughout five days of last week's bat-dominated first Test.
By lunch, however, Saim Ayub and Kamran Ghulam had restored Pakistan's position with a well-paced stand of 60 in 19.2 overs. Ghulam, on debut, struck Leach for a straight six to relieve some of the pressure early in his innings, as he set about proving his worth as Babar Azam's replacement for this contest, while Ayub settled in on 40 not out, his highest score of the series.
After winning the toss, Shan Masood was happy - and not a little relieved - to be able to take first use of a surface that had been heavily watered and dried with industrial fans in the four-day turnaround since England's innings victory in the series opener. Though he could not predict exactly how it would play, he reckoned that runs on the board would be crucial if the surface breaks up as anticipated.
It took Ben Stokes, England's returning captain, just five overs to form his own opinion of the surface, as he put his new-ball seamers, Matthew Potts and Brydon Carse, out to pasture and turned instead to his twin spinners, Leach and Shoaib Bashir. The pair would bowl 19 of the next 21 overs between them, with Joe Root's exploratory overs enabling the two to switch ends, before a return of the quicks before lunch in a bid for reverse-swing.
Leach had already shown his relative liking for this surface with seven wickets in the first Test, including each of the last four to fall in Pakistan's second-innings collapse on days four and five of that match. Sure enough, day six played to his probing strengths too, as he became the first England spinner to claim two wickets inside the first ten overs of a Test match since Johnny Briggs in 1889.
His first victim was Abdullah Shafique, a centurion in the first innings last week, but once again under fire, largely as a consequence of his misfiring opening stand with Ayub. The pair had realised a highest stand of 8, and an average of 2.67, in eight previous innings together, and though they all but doubled that tally in taking the score along to 15, Leach then ripped a sharp spinner past Shafique's outside edge before nailing his off stump one ball later, as Shafique poked uncertainly down the wrong line for 7.
Masood then came and went before Leach's subsequent over was complete, as Stokes - forever tinkering with his field and ever-eager to dispense with convention - brought his short midwicket a touch straighter to invite the flick across the line, and struck one ball later, as Zak Crawley swooped to scoop a low clip from outside off.
That brought Ghulam to the middle at a dicey 19 for 2, but the debutant showed few nerves as he showcased a technique that has earned him more than 4500 first-class runs at an average of 49 in Pakistan's domestic competitions.
