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It’s not often England reduce their opponents to 223 for nine and still troop off feeling unfulfilled. But this has been a strange summer, and Friday was a strange afternoon.
For the second day in a row, the weather sliced the cricket in half, allowing only 40.2 overs as the second Test gropes for a narrative in the Southampton gloom. It was still enough time for England’s bowlers to produce one of their sporadic curate’s-egg performances: excellent in parts, otherwise unpalatable.
Joe Root’s team may still go on to win this second Test, and with it the series. But if they do it will be in spite of a madcap hour before the first of two stoppages for bad light brought an early tea.
Mohammed Rizwan hit a half century as Pakistan frustrated England at the Ageas Bowl
By then, Pakistan had moved from the mediocrity of 176 for eight to the semi-respectability – in these conditions at least – of 215 for eight, with Mohammad Rizwan completing his second Test fifty and generally making a nuisance of himself.
Stuart Broad emerged after the break to trap No 10 Mohammad Abbas lbw, and end a frustrating ninth-wicket stand of 39. But Rizwan was still there on 60 when the umpires whipped out their light meters moments later, despite the Ageas Bowl floodlights being on full beam.
Perhaps it was a good job there were no spectators around to let the umpires know what they thought. Over on the Nursery Ground, the players in Pakistan’s white-ball bubble practised undisturbed. Does any sport fuss and fret quite like cricket?
Pakistan, meanwhile, may now be wondering what damage Abbas and Co can wreak if the clouds remain low and the pitch juicy. A batting paradise this is not.
Babar Azam was caught behind from Stuart Broad’s delivery on 47 runs
The fact is England missed a golden chance to bowl out the opposition for below 200 for the fifth time in six Test innings. West Indies’ last three totals during their failed defence of the Wisden Trophy were 198, 197 and 129, while Pakistan’s collapse to 169 in the second innings at Emirates Old Trafford contributed to their improbable first-Test defeat.
When Dom Sibley pulled off his second direct hit in two games to run out Shaheen Shah Afridi and gift England their eighth wicket, the bowlers ought to have wrapped things up. Instead they lost control – not for the first time.
In the first Test, they had been perfect Mr Hydes on the first two mornings, only to emerge after lunch on both days to spray it like Dr Jekyll.
Now they contrived to loosen the shackles they had been placing expertly on Pakistan’s batsmen, spooked from their off-stump line by the impishness of Rizwan. To his delight, the field began to spread to the fence. Suddenly, England looked as if they were chasing the game.
Babar Azam was key to Pakistan’s first hour as they avoided losing any further wickets
There had already been signs of sloppiness. Jos Buttler missed a leaping half-chance behind the stumps when Rizwan, on 14, gloved a pull off Broad. Soon after, Root allowed a low chance at slip to burst through his fingers after Afridi edged Sam Curran.
England’s captain claimed the catch, though not with the usual conviction, and umpires Kettleborough and Gough referred the decision upstairs, accompanied – randomly, it seemed – by a soft signal of ‘out’. That meant TV official Richard Illingworth needed conclusive evidence Root had grassed the ball. Replays showed he had.
Amid all the slo-mos, it was easy to forget that England had dropped another chance in the slips. Had they held everything that has come their way in this innings, they might have dismissed Pakistan for under three figures.
Rizwan began to enjoy himself, steering Curran over the cordon, then easing Chris Woakes through the covers. The second new ball arrived with comical timing: James Anderson was off the field for running repairs. Four leg-byes brought up Pakistan’s 200, and the psychological reassurance that they were in the game.
Jimmy Anderson (right) looked to be aggressive in what were perfect bowling conditions
Well though Rizwan played, and resolutely though Abbas stuck by him, this was scrappy cricket by England, unbecoming of a team with designs on the No 1 ranking.
Play had begun 90 minutes late because of rain, and the tourists did well to add an undisturbed 29 to their overnight 126 for five in the hour before lunch.
If it was one of cricket’s many absurdities that food had to be consumed at that precise moment, even after a long delay, then England took the chance to regroup and remind themselves of their strengths.
In the third over after the break, Broad summoned up a beauty to have Babar Azam, Pakistan’s classiest batsman, caught behind for 47. And when Anderson induced an edge from Yasir Shah – his 593rd Test wicket – it was 170 for seven.
Pakistan managed to survive the first session and reached lunch on 155 for five
Six runs later, Afridi hared off for a single as Woakes half-heartedly appealed for lbw against Rizwan. Sibley gathered the ball in the gully, and threw down the stumps at the non-striker’s end, with Afridi diving in vain.
England’s fielders roared with laughter, but the smiles gave way to scowls – until Broad removed Abbas to pick up his third wicket. He has now taken at least three in seven innings since being inexplicably dropped for the first Test against West Indies, a sequence not achieved by an England bowler since Graeme Swann in 2009.
It is some riposte, reflected in a haul of 25 wickets at under 13 apiece – comfortably his best average in 13 home summers, beating 22 in both 2011 and 2015. He isn’t finished. But he knows Pakistan’s first innings should long have been consigned to history.
Rain delayed play with the covers forced into use at an overcast Ageas Bowl on Friday morning
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