Pakistan batsman Shan Masood reached his fourth Test century during the second day of the first Test against England. He played a gritty innings, taking 251 deliveries to reach the three-figure mark during the first innings in Manchester.
Masood, who opened the batting, held one end for the Pakistan side, stabilising their innings after early setbacks with dismissals of Abid Ali and captain Azhar Ali.
After forging a 96-run partnership with Babar Azam (69), Masood took the anchor role as he braved the English attack under significant overcast conditions. Azam was dismissed in the very first over of the second day.
Masood scored 13 fours en-route his 251-ball century, which made him the first Pakistan opener to breach the three-figure mark in Tests in England since Saeed Anwar in 1996.
Overall, he is the fifth opener to score a hundred in England after Mohsin Khan (1982), Mudassar Nazar (1987) and Aamer Sohail (2005).
This was also Masood's third consecutive Test hundred, which makes him the seventh Pakistan batsman to do so. Incidentally, the previous two batsmen who achieved the feat sit in the Pakistan dressing room as head coach and batting coach respectively - Misbah-ul-Haq and Younis Khan (both in 2014).
He scored 100 against Bangladesh in Rawalpindi, and 135 against Sri Lanka in Karachi in his previous two Tests.
