Watch: Chris Woakes' efforts at boundary in vain as Pakistan's Salman Agha awarded six
Salman Agha scored an unbeaten century but the innings would have ended in the early stages had the third umpire ruled in Chris Woakes' failure
Pakistan batted nearly two full days in their first Test against England in Multan and set up a mammoth score of 556 in their first innings. Three players scored centuries, the last whom was Salman Agha who scored an unbeaten 104 in 119 balls. Agha hit 10 fours and three sixes but the first of those almost led to him being dismissed while his innings was under 20 balls old.
Agha went for a six down the ground against Jack Leach off the second ball of the 117th over. Chris Woakes was present at the boundary and he seemed to have taken the catch. However, he was off balance when the ball nestled in his hands and he threw the ball up as his movement took him beyond the boundary. He then caught the ball again as he hopped back into the ground.
The on-field umpires sent the decision upstairs and the third umpire took a long look at the catch from multiple angles. In the end, it was adjudged that Woakes' foot had touched the ground outside the boundary when he had caught the ball a second time.
‘Thought I was out’
Agha was batting on 15 off 18 at the time and the six took him to 21 off 19. He went on to stay in the middle right until the end of the 149th over when Abrar Ahmed fell to Joe Root. To make matters worse for England, their opener Ben Duckett injured his finger taking the catch to complete the final dismissal and captain Ollie Pope had to promote himself up the order as a make-shift opener. He ended falling to Naseem Shah for a two-ball duck.
Agha, meanwhile, went on to say that he believed his innings had ended when Woakes caught the ball. “I did think it was out initially, I was walking towards the dressing room. The umpire said that he saw that his foot was on the boundary. I don't really know, I haven't seen it again. I initially thought I was out,” said the 30-year-old after the day's play.