England were mercilessly demolished by Pakistan spinner Noman Ali in a 152-run defeat in Multan, their struggles epitomized by the slapstick dismissal of Ben Stokes.
Chasing a mammoth target of 297 from a fiery Turner, England advanced on the reused pitch and were all out for 144 with their skipper embarrassed after he accidentally launched his bat 20 yards into the air.
Mohammad Rizwan skipped the bails when Stokes turned to see his GM blade disappear towards square leg, bringing the hosts to a scathing conclusion as they leveled the series at 1-1.
In the process, Pakistan ended a six-game losing streak and recorded their first win on home soil since February 2021, setting up a decider in Rawalpindi next week.
spinning duo
England had hopes of producing one of their trademark turnarounds but could not contain Noman. Noman took astonishing figures of 8 for 46 as he completed the rare feat of sharing all 20 wickets in a match with Sajid Khan.
Only six other duos have done so in Test cricket, with Australians Dennis Lillee and Bob Massie being the last to do so at Lord’s in 1972. The last spinners to do so were Jim Laker and Tony Lock in England in 1956.
England’s not-out batsmen had time to plan their next move at 36 all night long, but Joe Root did not even face the ball until his partner Ollie Pope started the rot in the second over.
He had already seen one from Noman drill Sajid into the ground and explode past his outside edge as he looked to give the bowler a straight catch.
England collapsed in rotation
Pope’s misery was made worse by the off-spinner’s recent theatrical response, which saw him slap his thigh and point to the sky in celebration.
This left him with number 9 in the match, but he was unable to make number 10 in the match as the 38-year-old Noman picked off each of the next seven.
The victory line already seemed impossibly remote, but it became almost irrelevant when he beat Root and got England’s most reliable player in spinning terms lbw.
Root swept five of his first seven balls but misjudged his sixth attempt and was caught in front of the off-stump.
Stokes, who adopted an almost identical diet of regular and reverse sweeps, failed to stop it, but the game was quickly slipping through his team’s fingers.
Harry Brook was next out cheaply for the second time in the match, hanging on the back foot. He was on 16 when he tried to smash Noman onside, lost form and failed to connect, falling lbw.
autumn continues
Jamie Smith ended a disappointing performance by hacking his 10th ball to high mid-off, failing to correct a bad drop to widen the tail behind the stumps in the third of the afternoon.
Brydon Carse avoided a golden duck as he successfully overturned another lbw decision, before hitting a couple of unexpected blows when Sajid started off successive deliveries for six minutes.
Stokes, who had reached 37 almost entirely by sweep, decided to adopt a similar approach and failed in disastrous style. Throwing the kitchen sink while charging at Noman, he lost his grip and threw his bat high in the air as Rizwan completed his left-arm five-wicket haul.
Carse added a third six to put Noman to slip before Jack Leach and Shoaib Bashir caught the catch to Abdullah Shafique under the helmet.
Read more: India recorded their lowest Test score at home as New Zealand tore up their batting order.
