Pakistan opening batsman Shan Masood showcased immense grit and resilience in the ongoing first Test against England at Old Trafford in Manchester. He stood tall against the quality pace attack featuring the likes of James Anderson and Stuart Broad, and registered his 4th Test century.
Also, this was Masood’s third Test century in a row. The left-handed batsman wasn’t very aggressive during his knock, instead, he remained calm and didn’t put a foot wrong against the swinging deliveries. Although the wickets kept falling at the other end, Masood did not put his guards down and scored a marvellous hundred.
YES!!! 100 up for @shani_official 👏👏👏 #ENGvPAK pic.twitter.com/B2wUjsjT2t
— Pakistan Cricket (@TheRealPCB) August 6, 2020
One could understand the extraordinary effort exhibited by Masood simply with the fact that in the long history of Pakistan in red-ball cricket, Masood has become only the fifth opener to score a Test ton on English soil. The last Test ton by a Pakistani opener came 24 years ago when Saeed Anwar smashed 176 at The Oval.
Test hundreds by Pakistan openers in England
- 200 – Mohsin Khan, Lord’s 1982
- 124 – Mudassar Nazar, Edgbaston 1987
- 205 – Aamer Sohail, Manchester 1992
- 176 – Saeed Anwar, Oval 1996
- 100* – Shan Masood, Manchester 2020
Masood became the sixth Pakistan batsman to score three consecutive hundreds in the longest format of the game.
Three consecutive 100s for Pakistan (Tests)
- Zaheer Abbas (1982-83)
- Mudassar Nazar (1983)
- Mohammad Yousuf (2006)
- Younis Khan (2014)
- Misbah-ul-Haq (2014)
- Shan Masood (2019-20) *
Earlier, on Day 1, Masood stitched a crucial partnership with Babar Azam (69) to help the tourists. The pair added a 96-run stand before Anderson sent Babar back to the pavilion at the start of Day 2.
