WATCH: Jofra Archer bowls an absolute beauty to shatter Abid Ali’s stumps

England pacer Jofra Archer produced a peach of a delivery to shatter the stumps of Pakistan opener Abid Ali during the first innings of the first test match. The wicket came at the right time for England as Pakistani openers were on the brink to successfully see-off the new ball.

England needed a breakthrough, Jofra Archer provided it

Pakistan skipper Azhar Ali won the toss and elected to bat first during the first Test of the 3-match series against England on Wednesday. Soon the openers did well to justify their skipper’s decision to put up a sturdy partnership for the first wicket. While Abid Ali and Shan Masood batted slow, but they made sure to see-off the new bowl without losing a wicket. Both openers added 36 runs in 15 overs of the play for the first wicket.

Getting desperate for a wicket, English skipper Joe Root handed the bowl to Jofra Archer. The lanky pacer didn’t disappoint his captain as he picked up the prized wicket of Abid Ali with an absolute beauty. He first bowls some short bowls to disrupt the batsman and then bowled an incoming length delivery. The pace on Jofra Archer’s delivery was too hot to handle for Ali, and all he could do was to watch his stumps shattered.

An absolute beauty from @JofraArcher! ?

Live Clips: https://t.co/z8nFZ1IrGF#ENGvPAK pic.twitter.com/7ZVcO6Z5xJ

— England Cricket (@englandcricket) August 5, 2020

In case you didn’t know:

Pakistan finished the first day of the first test match on a high after choosing to bat after winning the toss. While they lost Abid Ali and skipper Azhar Ali in quick succession, Shan Masood and Babar Azam made sure Pakistan didn’t lose further wickets. Azam, in particular, dominated the English bowling and scored 69 runs off 100 deliveries before the day was called off due to bad light. Shan Masood is unbeaten at a score of 46 runs and the duo has added 96 runs together so far. Chris Woakes and Jofra Archer have picked up one wicket each for the English side.