'Spot The Bat': Michael Vaughan Pokes Fun at Ben Stokes Losing His Bat, Balance and Wicket in Single Ball Against PAK

It was a day to forget for England, and especially for skipper Ben Stokes, who lost his wicket in quite some outrageous and entertaining fashion in his side’s loss to Pakistan in the second Test in Multan on Friday.

Chasing a trickey target of 297, England could not stand tall against the spin duo of Sajid Khan and Noman Ali, who continued to weave magic as wickets fell in regular intervals.

With the game poised at 125-6, Stokes was at the crease, trying to make a push for his team when Noman Ali bamboozled the Englishman with a rank turner.

Stokes went down the track with the hopes of walloping one over the boundary. But, he ended up heaving his bat all the way up in the sky, as the ball just fell into keeper Rizwan’s hands who stumped Stokes to add insult to injury.

Former England skipper Michael Vaughan later took to social media to post a screenshot of the incident, poking fun at Stokes by captioning the picture ‘Spot the bat competition’.

Left-arm spinner Ali took 8-46 to finish with a match haul of 11 wickets and England was bowled out for 144 inside the first session on Day 4 on a tailor-made dry wicket.

Off-spinner Khan took 2-93 to go with his 7-111 in the first innings as both spinners bowled unchanged and ran through the tourists’ batting lineup after Pakistan had set up a daunting target of 297 runs.

The win was the first for captain Shan Masood, who lost six tests in a row since being elevated as red-ball skipper last year. It also ended Pakistan’s winless 11-match home run that included four losses against England.

Pakistan’s last home test win came against South Africa in early 2021. Since, besides losing to England, it also lost home tests to Australia and recently 2-0 to Bangladesh.

With the series levelled 1-1, the teams will head to Rawalpindi to play the third Test which begins October 24.