Crawley and Root rebuild after Duckett strike and Salman Agha tone for Pakistan | Pakistan vs England 2024

For the better part of two days, England toiled on the field, hours of sweat and occasional inspiration in which Pakistan produced a score that many opponents have achieved – although perhaps not this one, beyond their general penchant for positivity in the last two games If you had won you had conceded more than 500 goals – you would find it completely disheartening. England stayed calm, kept trying, pushed, worked, occasionally making progress but making very few mistakes. And then, within a few minutes, everything changed.

It began with the dismissal of Shaheen Shah Afridi, Pakistan's ninth wicket to fall, with the score at 549. In the next over, Salman Agha, who had just become his team's third centurion, advanced to Joe Root, swinging, missing and turning turning to see Jamie Smith inexplicably missed the easiest chance to stump. In the following over, Abrar Ahmed went top-edge to mid-wicket, where Gus Atkinson craned his neck to track the ball's trajectory, planted his hands and then somehow allowed the ball to ripple through them.

The following over ended with Root firing a bouncer to Abrar, which would have been remarkable enough in itself, and the batter deflected it with the tip of his bat just to slip where Ben Duckett took the catch, ending the Pakistan innings finished and injured his left thumb.

After the change of innings, Ollie Pope, playing for the first time in first-class cricket as Duckett's deputy, dragged his second ball brutally over midwicket, where Aamer Jamal leapt to his right, reached out a hand and scooped the ball out of the air. England had lost a wicket and – unless Duckett's thumb heals overnight – an injured batsman, and Pakistan's bowlers had the coolest two hours of the day to wreak havoc and defend 556.

Together, Zak Crawley and Root provided calm to end the slump while still scoring almost five per over. Crawley batted with particular agility, somehow managing to send the ball screaming across an outfield that often seemed sluggish. He reached 50 from just 55 balls, 10 of which scored for four, including two flawless cover drives in a single over from Shaheen. At the end England were 96 for 1, still 460 behind, with Crawley exactly doubling Root's score with 64.

Until the tumultuous innings took a turn, Salman's innings had been the highlight of the day – a textbook late innings performance that beautifully managed to combine speed of scoring with conservation of the tail. At one point, with Shaheen at the other end, he faced 30 off 36 deliveries in six overs, scoring 36 runs, including singles off the last ball in five consecutive overs. He took 71 balls over his first 50, 37 to get his second, pushing Pope into perhaps his most ridiculous throwback – England's stand-in captain took his run tally to 0 from 12 by asking TV referee Chris Gaffaney if a the ball , which ended up outside leg stump and missed the wicket by at least a foot, might also have caught Salman lbw – and ended the innings unbeaten on 104 off 119.

But if Chris Woakes' feet were just half a size smaller, none of this would have happened. Salman had only scored 15 when he slammed a Leach throw onto the ground and the Warwickshire all-rounder settled under it. The catch was made, but as the fielder's momentum carried it toward the edge of the field, he threw it back into the air, stopping himself and pocketing it as it bounced back over the padding. It was a truly great performance in the outfield until Gaffaney took off and noticed that Woakes' big toe was still touching the grass on the wrong side of the rope when he caught the ball for the second time. How England paid for that half a second.

Play resumed in the morning with Pakistan making 328 for four and rebuilding after an English fightback. Gradually, Saud Shakeel increased his score from overnight to 35, eventually reaching a total of 82. At this point, he was surprised by a throw from Shoaib Bashir, which spun, bounced and was caught at slip. Meanwhile, nightwatchman Naseem Shah, who had suffered three tosses the night before, frustrated England for another 78 and was slow to score except for three moments when he knocked down a spinner for six.

The 21-year-old is emerging as a skilled late-innings batsman, able to occupy the crease to free up someone with more skill at the other end who can score runs – a 78-ball six against last year Sri Lanka, a 46-ball six and a 52-ball five the year before – but with a growing flair for occasional carnage. There were no sixes in his first 16 Test innings, but there have now been seven in his last eight. However, he eventually steered a ball at leg slip to Harry Brook, giving Brydon Carse his first Test wicket after contributing a handy 33.

Unlike the two centurions on day one, Mohammad Rizwan came into this game in excellent form – since the end of 2022, he had averaged 76.71 in nine innings and never scored less than 28 – and he duly fell to a 12- Ball duck in and wait He took his time, forcing his way into the innings and then scampering backwards to give himself space to hit a Jack Leach delivery straight to middle. This was a day when the predictable and prosaic occasionally gave way to the completely unexpected.