Pakistan will feel that they hold the advantage over England at the end of day one of the third Test in Karachi.
After losing the toss, England would have been satisfied with dismissing their hosts for 304, teenage debutant Rehan Ahmed taking two of the wickets.
However, the first-over dismissal of Zak Crawley for a duck led to England reaching stumps on 7-1, trailing Pakistan by 297 runs.
Despite holding an unassailable 2-0 lead in the best-of-three series, England want to record a rare whitewash win for a visiting team on the subcontinent.
Given the previous first-day scores which have been made in the series, the advantage was firmly in Pakistan's favour once they won the toss, but they failed to make the most of a pitch which will only deteriorate.
WHAT A CATCH 🤯🤯
— Sky Sports Cricket (@SkyCricket) December 17, 2022
And Rehan Ahmed has his FIRST Test match wicket ✅🙌 pic.twitter.com/JKBvOMNq4M
Wickets were lost at regular intervals, the moment of the day coming at the end of the 42nd over as Rehan, who is the youngest player to ever play Test cricket for England, took his first wicket, having Saud Shakeel caught at short leg for 23.
The 18-year-old later trapped Faheem Ashraf in front of his stumps for four, but Pakistan still went through their innings scoring at a rapid rate, helped by Babar Azam's 78 from 123 balls.
Agha Salman also chipped in with a valuable 56, but Pakistan went from 285-7 to 304 all out, Jack Leach taking each wicket to finish with figures of 4-140.
With England still having three overs to negotiate, Pakistan would not have minded failing to bat out the day, that feeling proven correct as Crawley was dismissed LBW by Abrar Ahmed with the fifth ball.
Ben Duckett survived a review with the final delivery of the day, enabling him and Ollie Pope to reach the close of play unbeaten on four and three respectively.
Darren Plant
