How England tore up the record books with their “phenomenal” Test win over Pakistan

England stormed to an unlikely record victory on the morning of the final day of their first Test match against Pakistan in Multan.

In the 'Bazball' era, the Multan Test of this Pakistan tour ranks among some of their biggest victories abroad, notably Rawalpindi in 2022 and Hyderabad earlier this year.

Jack Leach finished the game with four wickets as the hosts were unable to recover from the 82 for six they had reached on the fourth day and in the absence of Abrar Ahmed, who remained in hospital, England only needed three wickets and they took them morning meeting.

England won by an innings and 47 runs, only their second one-innings victory in Asia, and a feat that was unimaginable when Pakistan ended the second day with a first-innings score of 556.

No team in history has ever scored as many runs as Pakistan did in the first two days and then lost by an innings margin, it was a remarkable achievement.

England have won three times while conceding more than 500 goals in total. The only time it finished first, conceded more than 500 goals and then won was in 1894.

The victory was due in large part to Joe Root and Harry Brooks' record-breaking 454-run performance, which saw England score 823 runs for seven runs. Ollie Pope's team's points total is the fourth highest ever and the highest England have achieved since the Second World War.

England's numerically extraordinary victory

• England's reported 823-7 was the fourth highest total in Test cricket

• Harry Brook and Joe Root's 454 partnership is the highest by two English batters

• Joe Root overtook Sir Alastair Cook to become England's all-time leading run-scorer

• Never before had a team conceded 556 goals and won by one innings

Brook and Root's stand became England's highest ever Test batting partnership. The previous one was set by Peter May and Colin Cowdrey in 1957, but this required 1,140 throws compared to the Yorkshire duo's 522. It was also only the third time that two players scored more than 250 points in Tests.

Stand-in captain Pope spoke about the momentous event after the game: “Everyone knows what a special win that was. “It was a serious effort,” Pope said.

“Anytime you get to 550, no matter what pitch, it’s always a good result, but we also knew that if we fought like we knew how, we could go big.”

“We have two greedy Yorkshire men and they did just that. What they did was truly special and a joy to watch.

“It was phenomenal. When you're so far behind in the game, you get confidence from your previous performances, but the most important thing for us in the dressing room is that we try not to think too much about the final result during the game.

“Especially when we're behind, we know that if we manage to give absolutely 100 percent, chase the ball as hard as we can up the field and do the little things, the bigger things will take care of themselves.

“That has allowed us to have these performances and good wins in situations where we might not have gotten over the finish line in the past.”

Root became the first player to record 20,000 international runs across all formats and only the 13th player overall. On the third day, Root overtook Sir Alastair Cook to become England's all-time leading run-scorer and fifth overall.

Brook became England's first player to score a triple century in 34 years and his total score of 317 is the fifth highest Test score by an Englishman. He tends to bat well in Pakistan, he scored more runs in Pakistan than in England during his last tour in 2022 and the first innings in Multan.

With reporting from PA