3rd Test Day 3: England bundle out Pakistan for 273, enforce follow-on at stumps

The hosts had earlier declared their first-innings at 583 for eight on the second day of final Test against Pakistan.

Image Credits: Twitter/@ICC

James Anderson completed his 29th five-wicket haul in Tests as England bundled out Pakistan for 273 runs in their first-innings and enforced a follow-on before bad light forced early stumps on the third day of the third and final match at the Rose Bowl Cricket Ground in Southamptom on Sunday.

At the end of the day's play, the visitors were still trailing by 310 runs against England.

Resuming their first-innings at 24 for three on Day 3, skipper Azhar Ali almost single-handedly kept his side's scoreboard ticking while the wickets at the other end kept falling at regular intervals.

Azhar Ali not only smashed a century but also stitched a crucial 138-run partnership with Mohammad Rizwan (53)--the only other notable contributor for the visitors.

In fact, Azhar finished his side's first-innings unbeaten with 272-ball 141 runs, including 21 boundaries. En route to his knock, he also became only the fifth Pakistani cricketer to reach the 6,000 Test runs.

Meanwhile, Babar Azam (11), Asad Shafiq (5), Fawad Alam, (21), Yasir Shah (20), Shaheen Shah Afridi (three), Mohammad Abbas (1) and Naseem Shah (0) all failed to contribute much to their side's innings and went back to the pavilion cheaply.

Anderson proved to be the tormentor-in-chief for the hosts with figures of five for 56. While Stuart Broad bagged two wickets, Chris Woakes and Dom Bess also chipped in with a wicket each.

Earlier, Zak Crawley (267) pulled back a double century, while Jos Buttler smashed his second Test ton and career-best score of 152 to help England post a mammoth total of 583 for eight declared in their first-innings.