SOUTHAMPTON, United Kingdom (AFP) — Pakistan’s Shaheen Afridi needed just four balls to remove England’s Rory Burns for a duck yesterday before bad weather again interrupted the second Test at Southampton.

England were 7-1 in reply to Pakistan’s first innings 236 when rain stopped play at 12:00 pm local time (1100 GMT) on the fourth day.

In gloomy conditions that, with the floodlights on, favoured Pakistan’s pacemen as they had England’s quicks, left-arm fast bowler Afridi produced a superb delivery that moved away from left-hander Burns, who edged to second slip Asad Shafiq.

It took England until the third over to score their first run as Dom Sibley and Zak Crawley struggled against both Afridi and the accurate Mohammad Abbas.

When the umpires called a halt, Sibley was two not out and Crawley, recalled in place of Ben Stokes after the star all-rounder withdrew from this match to be with his ill father in New Zealand, five not out.

There was no more play before lunch.

Meanwhile, Wasim Akram has insisted England “owe” Pakistan for going ahead with their tour amid the novel coronavirus pandemic as he urged English officials to honour a planned returned visit in 2022.

England have not played in Pakistan since 2005/06. An attack by armed militants on Sri Lanka’s team bus in Lahore in 2009 ended major cricket tours for a decade.

But Sri Lanka, Zimbabwe, West Indies and Bangladesh have all since made the trip.

West Indies and Pakistan, among the poorer Test nations, have been praised for travelling to Britain, which has been hit hard by the COVID-19 outbreak and helping spare the England and Wales Cricket Board an estimated £280-million (US$366 million) loss if their scheduled matches were wiped out by the virus.

“You [England] boys owe Pakistan cricket and the country a lot, with the boys coming over here,” Pakistan great Akram, arguably the best left-arm fast bowler in cricket history, told Sky Sports yesterday.