The contest between England and Pakistan is slowly turning into a contest between rain and bad light, with the two phenomena pushing each other to achieve the feat of wiping out more playtime than the other. Resuming on 126/5 after a rain delay ensured a late start to the day’s play, the two overnight Pakistani […]
The contest between England and Pakistan is slowly turning into a contest between rain and bad light, with the two phenomena pushing each other to achieve the feat of wiping out more playtime than the other.
Resuming on 126/5 after a rain delay ensured a late start to the day’s play, the two overnight Pakistani batsmen, Babar Azam and Mohammad Rizwan had their task cut out, facing the rampant quartet of Woakes, Anderson, Broad and Curran under cloudy overhead conditions, so cloudy that the floodlights had to be switched on, on a pitch that was offering everything the quicks required.
As expected, runs were very hard to come by. Deliveries were regularly swaying, seaming and flying past the edge of the two batsmen. The pair had to scamper quicks singles and doubles on the very few opportunities they got. The sluggish outfield wasn’t helping their cause either.
The mostly immaculate line and length from Woakes and Anderson and then Broad and Curran proved to be too much for stroke-happy Babar Azam. Having played and missed on several occasions, scoring 22 runs in the 76 deliveries he faced since morning, he finally got the perfect delivery from Stuart Broad which pitched just on 4th stump and seamed away just a little bit, forcing Babar to play at it. He ended up nicking it to Buttler behind the stumps, who, despite his technical faults with the gloves, took the catch when it mattered the most.
Buttler was guilty of being unable to reach a chance offered by Rizwan off the same bowler two overs later after his opposite number was late on the pull shot due to the extra pace off the pitch.
Yasir Shah, who walked in after the fall of Babar’s wicket, never intended to spend time in the middle. After hammering a full-length delivery from Broad through covers, he perished next over trying to repeat the same stroke off Anderson. The ball swung away from him and Yasir, not bothering in getting his head on top of the ball, promptly nicked it behind to Buttler.
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Rizwan was fighting away at his end, but he was not helped by Shaheen Afridi for long. As if the bowling spells were not tough enough to negotiate, Shaheen found a much more callous way to get out. Rizwan was hit on the back thigh by an in-ducker from Woakes. The ball rolled to the gully area. For some reason, without Rizwan’s knowledge, Shaheen decided to jog halfway down the pitch, before realising that his partner had no clue about a run, and Sibley was swooping on the ball. He tried to make it back, but a direct hit caught him well and truly short at the bowler’s end.
Upon running out of partners, Rizwan decided to take on the bowlers whenever possible The following delivery from Woakes, pitched on back of a length, was smoked past square leg for four. He tried his utmost best to shield Mohammad Abbas from the strike, in the process a few more comical moments between the wickets followed, without any harm being done.
Rizwan brought up his fifty with a heart-stopping second run that nearly saw Abbas get run out once again, only for Broad to waste a precious second in taking the bails off after collecting the ball in front of the stumps.
Bad light forced an early tea break. Upon returning, Broad made up for his run out misjudgement by trapping Abbas plumb in front. Naseem Shah, the last man, somehow managed to get off strike with a clip to square leg, and then Rizwan smashed a half-volley to the fence before taking a single off the last ball to farm the strike. Umpire Richard Kettleborough found the quality of light to be unconvincing and play was interrupted for a third time. After an hour-and-a-half long wait, the non-improvement in the quality of light meant that stumps were had to be drawn.
Pakistan 223/9 (86 Overs)
Rizwan 60*, Abid 60, Anderson 3/48
