Jos Buttler takes an astounding catch to dismiss Shaheen Shah Afridi during the third Test against Pakistan

The England cricket team is playing its last and final Test match of the three-match Test series against Pakistan at The Rose Bowl stadium in Southampton. Though Pakistan are trailing the hosts by 310 runs at the end of day 3, they would be looking forward to bridge the run gap to draw the series. At present, the Englishmen are leading the three-match series by 1-0 as they won the first match by three wickets while the second match was declared as drawn due to the interruption of rain.

England’s captain Joe Root won the toss and elected to bat first. Owing to the spellbound knock of 267 by Zak Crawley and 152 by wicketkeeper-batsman Jos Buttler, the hosts declared their first innings at mammoth score of 583 runs at the loss of 8 wickets. In response, the visiting team gave away their first four wickets easily to pacer James Anderson in just 13 overs.

Though it looked like a cakewalk at 30/4 in the morning, Pakistan’s captain Azhar Ali’s brilliance and his pairing with Rizwan meant that it wasn’t till the fag end of the day that the visitors were bowled out. During the third Test, Azhar fought hard and showed courage as he notched his 17th Test century and third against England. Also, his 138-run partnership with wicket-keeper batsman Mohammad Rizwan (53) formed the backbone of their innings.

Jos Buttler’s stunning catch

England’s wicketkeeper-batsman Jos Buttler has had an amazing match till now. It was not long ago that Buttler was having a nightmare behind the stumps. He was under major scrutiny after the first Test as he had dropped Shan Masood and then missed a chance to stump him when the opener was on 45 during Pakistan’s first innings. Masood had gone to make a Test-best 156 to help Pakistan establish a lead of over a hundred runs.

However, shutting the mouth of his criticisers, Buttler not only scored a ton with the bat but also took an astounding catch to dismiss Pakistan speedster Shaheen Shah Afridi in the first innings of the third match. It was during the first delivery of the 86th over that Afridi tried to play a short delivery from Stuart Broad and edged the ball down the leg-side. In what wasn’t a straightforward chance, Buttler dived to his right to catch the with one hand while being airborne.

This resulted in Shaheen walking back to the pavilion at a mere score of 3 as the Pakistan team continued to fizzle away. Earlier in the match, Jos had also taken a top notch catch down the leg side to dismiss Mohammad Rizwan who had stitched a wonderful partnership with his captain.