Pakistan v England: third Test, day two – live

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And that’s hitting middle of middle! It was umpire’s call on impact. Nauman, from over the wicket, got some sharp turn there to trap Duckett on the back foot. That’s come slightly out of nowhere for Pakistan.

Duckett reviews after Nauman has him lbw…

13th over: England (Duckett 26, Pope 32) Big from Duckett! He comes down the track and smashes Abrar for a straight six. Lovely, lovely shot. The left-hander dabs to the off-side for a single a couple of balls later, and Pope then collects a boundary with a beautiful clip through the leg side. England are cruising.

12th over: England 47-1 (Duckett 19, Pope 28) Pope and Duckett tick along comfortably against Nauman, with the latter bringing out his paddle sweep for a single.

11th over: England 42-1 (Duckett 17, Pope 25) Abrar is tweaking away, and looking threatening, that low bounce giving him something to work with.

Here’s some love for Adam Collins, a regular on these pages. A great call on Mitchell Starc’s 300th Test wicket.

10th over: England 38-1 (Pope 22, Duckett 16) The quicks aren’t having much fun so it’s spin from both ends as Nauman Ali gets a bowl. Duckett swats away to the leg side and gets two after a misfield from Abrar, who was ambitious in trying the one-handed pick-up.

9th over: England 33-1 (Pope 20, Duckett 13) Duckett gets his beloved sweep out to fetch a couple off Abrar.

8th over: England 30-1 (Pope 19, Duckett 11) Wasim is given the boot after two expensive overs, with Faheem Ashraf called into the attack to replace him. He brings a bit more control, conceding just a couple.

7th over: England 28-1 (Duckett 10, Pope 18) Abrar gets one to keep low, giving Pope a little fright.

“Morning Taha.” Morning, Brian.

“I must confess I was almost distracted by the mayhem available in Australia, but the lure of proper, sedate Test cricket in your reassuring company was too strong. I am sure messrs Pope, Duckett and co will dig in and try to eke things out until lunch …”

Thanks, Brian, you’ve made the right call.

6th over: England 26-1 (Pope 17, Duckett 9) On the pads from Wasim, and Pope flicks through the leg-side for four. The debutant is too straight again with his following delivery, and Pope picks up two with another whip. Duckett finishes the over with a clip of his own behind square for four.

5th over: England 15-1 (Pope 10, Duckett 5) Abrar has the ball, and it’s Mohammad Rizwan who is calling the shots out there for Pakistan – Babar Azam is feeling unwell, says Nasser on comms. Maiden for the leggie.

4th over: England 15-1 (Duckett 5, Pope 10) Pope throws his hands out there at a wide one and, while not in total control, finds four over the cordon. We’re up and running on day two.

Ollie Pope and Ben Duckett are out there, and Mohammad Wasim has the ball.

Now, look, I don’t want people to leave me here. But there’s some madness going on at the Gabba.

Scott Boland – that Test average is still absolutely ridiculous.

This is just all kinds of lovely.

Morning, folks! The opening day in Karachi was a historic one, all thanks to a teenage kid with some very useful tricks. Rehan Ahmed became England’s youngest men’s Test cricketer and, after a nervy start, found his rhythm on a flat one to take two impressive wickets. The first, that of Saud Shakeel, was a lovely set-up: the googly followed by a leg-spinner that resulted in a terrific bat-pad catch by Ollie Pope. The second was a gorgeous wrong’un, beating the forward press of Faheem Ashraf to have the left-hander lbw. An 18-year-old leggie in this madly fun Test side – you can’t help but get a bit excited.

Rehan Ahmed helped England bowl out Pakistan for 304, and Zak Crawley fell for a duck to the twirly delights of Abrar Ahmed, leaving Stokes’ men on 7-1.

As ever, feel free to slide into my DMs with any thoughts/queries/song requests. I’ll be back shortly.