From the sport that once brought you leg theory, this was more like chaos theory. Before this week nobody knew what you would get if you spent the buildup to a game roasting the pitch in a makeshift fan oven. It turns out the answer is wickets, 13 of them falling on an opening day of drama and frequent befuddlement.
Of the 16 batters who tried only Ben Duckett, who scored 52 before being undone by one that kept unsportingly low, and Jamie Smith, who scored a hugely impressive 89, looked particularly comfortable. In what became the longest innings – since people started noting these things – when only spin was bowled England posted 267, of which 143 were scored while the No 7 was at the crease.
Smith alone found an answer to the bowling of the mercurial Sajid Khan, who added another six wickets to the nine he took in Multan last week. In response, Pakistan reached stumps on 73 for three, with four of their batters having reached the teens and none so far getting beyond them.
There had been a romantic idea before play began that the first day might provide calm, perhaps even ideal, batting conditions, but it did not quite work out that way. When the groundstaff carried off the cover and wheeled away their patio heaters and industrial fans what was revealed was a mosaic of cracks marked here and there with areas of superficial scratches, evidence of the raking several England players spoke about in the buildup. Informed opinion predicted an initially placid pitch that would at some point deteriorate and that turned out to be the case – though nobody was expecting it to start deteriorating within half an hour.
As Duckett and Zak Crawley made their way to the middle minds drifted back to England’s last game here, in 2022, when they both scored centuries on their way to a partnership of 233, scored at a jaunty 6.5 an over. On the first day of that match England reached a serene 200 without loss shortly after lunch; at the same stage of this one Gus Atkinson was walking out to bat. The first sign of trouble came from the first ball of the day, bowled by Sajid, which turned sharply to beat batter and wicketkeeper. It was a warning the openers heeded, batting carefully for the first 10 overs while the bowlers felt their way into the match. Then it all started happening.
Having reached 56 without great drama the tourists proceeded to lose five wickets for 42 runs, crumbling faster than the ground beneath their feet. Duckett was particularly hard done by but Ollie Pope also fell to a delivery that kept low, trapped lbw by Sajid – who has now bowled 26 balls to him, in three innings, and dismissed him three times.
But the pitch cannot be blamed for all of the wickets to fall. Crawley miscued a cut to backward point, precisely the dismissal Pakistan planned for him, Mohammad Rizwan, the wicketkeeper, disco dancing with Noman Ali in celebration. Joe Root had scored five when he played back to a Sajid delivery, which he could have defended easily had he gone forward, and nearly caught the ball between his legs. A bit of extra pace from the same bowler did for Harry Brook, who missed a sweep and was bowled having also scored five.
When Ben Stokes edged a catch to slip just after lunch England were 118 for six and in a hole even deeper than the footmarks Pakistan’s pair of diminutive spinners had somehow already scoured into the surface. The situation was rescued by Smith and Gus Atkinson, who added 105 for the seventh wicket while at times displaying a level of control that must have delighted but also slightly concerned their teammates.
They clearly benefited from facing tiring bowlers as an extraordinary marathon effort from Sajid and Noman reached its end. They bowled the first 42 overs on Thursday and after their double-handed heroics in the second Test in Multan by the time they were finally split they had bowled in unbroken partnership for 88.5 overs in three innings and two matches and taken 20 wickets in the process.
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Brilliant as they have been, this does not exactly suggest that Shan Masood, the Pakistan captain, has a great deal of faith in his other bowling options.
It was only after they were divided that Smith and Atkinson felt able to accelerate, with Atkinson targeting the leg-spin of Zahid Mahmood – off whom he scored four or his five boundaries – and Smith tucking into the returning Sajid. At one stage they scored 39 off four overs bowled by the pair, prompting the return of Noman and, four balls later, the end of Atkinson, who miscued one back into the bowler’s hands. Smith top-edged a slog soon afterwards to give Zahid his only wicket and England’s innings was all but done.
Along with their opponents’ spinners, Pakistan had to deal with the novelty of seam bowling and the glare of a dipping sun and for a while they struggled to cope. After reaching 35 without loss, three wickets fell for 11 runs, with Shoaib Bashir, Jack Leach and Atkinson claiming one apiece, before Masood and Saud Shakeel combined to navigate a safe path to stumps.
If England hoped winning the toss would allow them to take a stranglehold on the game their advantage for now, like the wicket, is fragile.
