England ended day two 196 runs behind Pakistan, having lost three first-innings wickets, after recovering well from a worrying 14-2
Here’s Mike Selvey’s report from day two in Dubai.
Related: England fight back but still have mountain to climb against Pakistan
And with that, it’s all over. We’ll be back bright and early for another intriguing* day in Dubai. Bye!
* It may not actually be intriguing, but it looks at this stage like it will be. That’s the best we can do.
And between overs, pretty much without warning, the umpires remove the bails and day two is over. From the point this morning when Pakistan stood on 334-5, England have done extremely well to end the day less than 200 runs behind, with three wickets down. All very much to play for.
51st over: England 182-3 (Root 76, Bairstow 27)
Bairstow, who’s having a delightfully feast-or-famine time of it, with just five singles and three twos to his name, and then five boundaries including a six, plays out another maiden from Zulfiqar.
50th over: England 182-3 (Root 76, Bairstow 27)
The 78th over of the day, by may calculations, and it’s one Root only narrowly survives after he gets a thick edge to Yasir’s delivery and it flies high but wide of the single slip for a couple. For a while the batsmen’s scores are then beautifully reverse-mirror-poised (or something) on 72 and 27, but then Root ruins it all by smashing the final devliery past square leg for four, the rotter.
49th over: England 176-3 (Root 70, Bairstow 27)
A few more dots from Zulfi to Bairstow, before the batsman pummels a full delivery through the covers for four.
48th over: England 172-3 (Root 70, Bairstow 23)
We’re into that phase at the end of the day when the batsmen concentrate on survival and Mark Wood straps his pads on and hopes he won’t need them. Yasir bowls and four runs are scored, in ones and twos.
47th over: England 168-3 (Root 69, Bairstow 20)
In which Bairstow’s all-out assault on Zulfi continued, in the shape of five successive dots and two off the last.
46th over: England 166-3 (Root 69, Bairstow 18)
Root tries to sweep Yasir, gets a little bottom-edge and the ball trundles past Sarfraz and away for four. “As a fellow Old Actonian given the fourths’ desire for promotion we might be able to rustle up volunteers to inflict the pain of a <18 hour childbirth on Mr Grant (over 44) if it would help him deliver 800 runs and 40 wickets a season,” writes Nicholas Clark. “We could bring it up at the AGM if he wants?”
45th over: England 162-3 (Root 65, Bairstow 17)
After his six-scoring high-jinks in Zulfi’s last over there was a certain amount of expectation on Bairstow going into this one. It is, inevitably, a maiden.
44th over: England 162-3 (Root 65, Bairstow 17)
Bairstow’s bullishness continues as he hoists Yasir to deep midwicket, the ball in the air for much of its journey but with no fielders anywhere relevant he’s in no danger. “To clarify it is ‘simply’ Childbirth <18 hours,” writes Andy Grant. “If it its over 18 hours plus pregnancy and breastfeeding etc I personally would want the wicket of a former international and a brief spell in a county 2nd XI.”
43rd over: England 156-3 (Root 64, Bairstow 13)
Zulfiqar returns in place of Wahab, and after a single Bairstow hits to midwicket for a couple, and then dances down the ground to hoist the ball over mid off and just over the rope for six runs! Woof! England now trail by the thrillingly repetitive 222.
42nd over: England 147-3 (Root 63, Bairstow 5)
Ooof! Yasir has Bairstow squirming here, turning the ball past the bat, and then Bairstow taps the ball straight to short leg and squirms again in his desperation to ground his bat before the stumps are broken. The stumps aren’t broken, as it turns out, but he wasn’t to know that when he started squirming. Maiden.
41st over: England 147-3 (Root 63, Bairstow 5)
Wahab bowls, and Root spears the ball through the cover field, two fielders set off after it and neither quite catches it up. Then he does something similar next ball, only this one isn’t even worth chasing. What a human Joe Root is. I’d go through childbirth if I knew another Joe Root would pop out, and consider the pain worth bearing for the future glory of my country and all humanity. Is that excessive? I’m not sure.
40th over: England 139-3 (Root 55, Bairstow 5)
Yasir’s 12th over yields a final-ball single to Root. “Do you get to choose the childbirth, as that’s got to be the key factor here,” suggests Tom Atkins. “If we’re talking a 30-hour extravaganza with no drugs and various complications, then nothing less than a man of the series performance in an Ashes series would do. But I’d take the pain of my friend’s 10-minute job on her second son in exchange for getting my brother out in the back garden.”
39th over: England 138-3 (Root 54, Bairstow 5)
Play resumes with shadows lengthening rapidly, though because of the shape of the stadium roof there’s only a small sunshine zone in the middle of the ground in which there are any shadows visible at all. Root clips the ball handsomely through midwicket for three.
Wahab back into the attack ... light gloomy ... big spell coming up
39th over: England 135-3 (Root 51, Bairstow 5)
Root prods Yasir’s first delivery into space on the leg side and takes the run that brings up his half-century. A couple more singles follow as does, once the over’s done, the drinks break.
38th over: England 132-3 (Root 49, Bairstow 4)
Imran Khan slams the ball into Bairstow’s pads, just above the ankle, and launches into the appeal of someone who genuinely thinks he’s about to celebrate. He doesn’t celebrate, there’s no review, and HawkEye has the ball missing leg stump by six inches. Singles for him and for Root leave the latter on the very verge of a half-century. “I’m tempted to say that I’d undergo the relevant suffering in order just to get six consecutive deliveries on the cut strip,” writes Robin Hazlehurst. “Can the pain of childbirth really compare to the pain of seeing yet another beautiful googly land four yards to the left of where it was supposed to? Though I’d probably get into trouble for suggesting that, so I won’t.”
37th over: England 130-3 (Root 48, Bairstow 3)
Bairstow is immediately off the mark, pushing the ball towards the square leg boundary and getting three runs before anyone caught up with it. Critical times in the match, these.
Cook’s gone! And that was reward for Pakistan’s planning, as they move in a leg slip and get near-immediate reward, Cook trying to tickle the ball around the corner, apparently oblivious to the fielder waiting there!
35th over: England 126-2 (Cook 65, Root 47)
Imran Khan bowls at Cook again, and this time Pakistan abandon second slip entirely, stick someone back on the boundary on fluky-edge-watch and have a wide fourth slip who might actually deal with said edges. There are, inevitably, no edges.
34th over: England 126-2 (Cook 65, Root 47)
Ouch! Yasir bowls, and Cook clobbers the ball into the calf of poor Masood at short leg, who tried to make himself small but needed to disappear altogether. “Having this summer made the first ever 50 of my life in division 4 of Guernsey’s evening leagues, I‘ve acquired the taste for big runs and would gladly suffer childbirth for a 100,” writes Richard McKeary. “From what I recall of my daughters’ births, the process consists mostly of lying around and taking drugs, so it’s something of a win-win.”
33rd over: England 125-2 (Cook 64, Root 47)
Imran Khan bowls, Cook edges and the ball bounces two or three times before it passes wide of third slip, and away for four. And if Pakistan found that frustrating, it was as nothing compared with the very next delivery, which Cook edges, and this time it bounces only one time before it passes wide of third slip - by now moved wider and almost a gully - and away for four.
32nd over: England 116-2 (Cook 55, Root 47)
A couple of singles brings up the 100 partnership, off 168 balls, a landmark vigorously applauded by those who could actually be bothered to get tickets and enter the stadium. The batsmen are so encouraged they score a couple more. “On male pregnancies (28th over etc), isn’t there also the fear that when you do return to cricket your captain, who you used to quite like, turns out to be a Neanderthal and makes you bat at 11 and doesn’t throw you the ball on the basis he thinks you’ll be off having another one in a minute,” asks Ronald Grover.
31st over: England 112-2 (Cook 53, Root 45)
Cook reaches his 45th Test 50 with a couple to backwards square and then a clip off his ankles to the long leg boundary. Meanwhile Richard Lunt has been to the stadium, and here’s his on-the-ground, or at least outside-the-ground, report: “£15 taxi ride to the stadium, and tickets being sold from one window only in a portokabin in a car park. Long queue, and got nowhere after 15 minutes, so a £15 taxi back to the hotel. Pakistan should desert this country, and play ‘home’ tests in Sri Lanka. SLCB, saddled with new stadiums, needs the cash.”
30th over: England 106-2 (Cook 47, Root 45)
Yasir bowls, and his final delivery thwacks Root on the front pad and leads to a loud appeal. The umpire says no, and a brief discussion about possibly reviewing ends when the bowler admits the ball hit the bat. And it quite clearly did.
Root has become the world's best middle-order initiative-seizer. Since the 2013-14 Ashes his strike-rate is 63.47; before that it was 39.69.
29th over: England 105-2 (Cook 46, Root 45)
Imran Khan gets the final session started, with just one slips and a gully in position. A key session, this one. Should England not lose a wicket, they’ll be feeling extremely chuffed about life this evening. Should they lose one wicket soonish, though, they could lose several and have a very glum Friday night.
Hello again. Simon here, from now until the sun sets on day two. All emails to me from now on, if you would. Full address and twitter stuff in the standfirst (refresh the page if Vish’s is still there).
Michael Avery is looking to clarify something over e-mail:
“Is it only the pain of childbirth we have to go through or are the hellish 9-months of pregnancy thrown in as well?”
28th over: England 105-2 (Cook 46, Root 45)
Riaz has two slip fielders, neither of whom are being allowed a game by Root, who is happy to leave almost everything outside off stump. He’s waiting for the short ball, and there it is, fifth ball, and is worked to the square leg fence for a single. And that’s tea.
@Vitu_E any century would be worth it, or maybe a dozen fivefers. Think that gives you an idea of my batting ability
27th over: England 104-2 (Cook 46, Root 44)
A maiden of Malik tempting Cook outside leg stump and Cook not managing to get a hold of any he approached with a bit of malice.
26th over: England 104-2 (Cook 46, Root 44)
Riaz digs a couple in short and then bowls a brute of a yorker that Cook gets a thick inside edge on. The ball then goes off his pad and races away to the fine-leg boundary but Misbah sends it for a review for LBW (not out). A full ball is met with the full face of the bat, before Cook is easily onto a short ball which he works inside the man at fine leg for four. A single in the same direction and the over is done.
@Vitu_E Not sure what's at the Root of Bell's problems, but Broadly speaking he seems to be going down a blind Ali. Apologies.
YEP – NOT OUT
Riaz serves up a dishy yorker that Cook edges onto his pad and then through to the boundary for four. Umpire gives it as runs but Misbah wants another look at it for LBW...
25th over: England 95-2 (Cook 37, Root 44)
Mailk’s trying to do his best Saeed Ajmal impression by holding his action at the crease and trying to put the batsman’s timing off. But Malik isn’t Ajmal – even Ajmal isn’t Ajmal anymore – and Root just waits a little bit longer before threading him through extra cover for four.
Andrew Grant has e-mailed in with an interesting (and surely unique) topic for OBO discussion...
“A discussion I had with my Mrs last night was what would I want in exchange for the pain of going through chidlbirth- my initial answer was £250k.
24th over: England 89-2 (Cook 36, Root 39)
Back to pace, now, as Wahab Riaz gives Yasir Shah a rest. Again Root takes a single, again Cook looks to sap the bowler’s will.
23rd over: England 88-2 (Cook 36, Root 38)
Bit of spin for Malik, who does Cook on the inside edge, from outside of leg stump. Cook is happy to soak up the pressure while Root does his tip-and-run thing.
22nd over: England 87-2 (Cook 36, Root 37)
Brilliant shot to end the over from Cook. Yasir gives it some flight so Cook gets out the slog sweep. Despite it being a straight delivery, he reads it perfectly, going down to up over mid wicket for a one-bounce four. Slayed a few Aussie spinners with that one in the 2010-11 Ashes.
21st over: England 82-2 (Cook 32, Root 36)
Shoaib Malik’s off breaks making an appearance for Babar, as Misbah brings on his fifth bowler. Root does that jive and flick to the leg side, twice, in between Malik continuing over the wicket to the left-handed Cook.
20th over: England 79-2 (Cook 31, Root 34)
Cook plays out the entire over and gets two from it – a patient cut to the off side sweeper allowing him a two. The rest is played out in front of him. Shoaib Malik now into the attack...
19th over: England 77-2 (Cook 29, Root 34)
Cook sweeps at Babar, misses completely and the ball hits his pad. An appeal goes up – his pad is outside the line – but the ball then rolls and ricochets into the stumps. And nothing happens. Amazing. It thudded into them, too. Lucky boy.
Yasir Shah's action looks a bit dodgy imo. pic.twitter.com/jHg9dYQTKJ
18th over: England 74-2 (Cook 27, Root 33)
Cracking shot from Root – a big stride out to Shah allows him to meet the ball before it pitches which he works through midwicket for four. A single squirted behind square on the leg side gets Cook on strike, who sweeps for one. Root then sweeps fine and well for a second boundary. Good over from England.
17th over: England 64-2 (Cook 26, Root 24)
Bat well in front of pad stuff for the Babar and pushing back and then forward to Shah. It’s working so far for these two, as Root pushes into the off side for a single.
16th over: England 63-2 (Cook 25, Root 22)
Cook tries to reverse-sweep Yasir, leading to an excited shout as the ball loops into the air, which lasts only as long as it takes to realise there’s nobody anywhere near catching it, and that it didn’t hit his bat anyway. Then there’s an lbw shout against Root, but the umpire’s unimpressed and the ball was surely clearing the stumps. And Vish will take you through the remainder of this session - all emails to vithushan.ehantharajah.casual@theguardian.com from now until tea, if you would.
15th over: England 58-2 (Cook 25, Root 19)
Cook thrashes Zulfi’s penultimate delivery over midwicket for four, an aggressive if not enormously risky stroke. And they’re still coming ...
@Simon_Burnton an analysis of Sledgehammer's career batting returns could be plotted as a Bell curve graph, tailing off sharply of course
14th over: England 53-2 (Cook 21, Root 18)
A maiden from Yasir, largely thanks to the poor bugger at short leg, Masood presumably, who took a nasty blow as Cook tried to make something of the final delivery, spearing it into the back of his arm as the fielder turned in terror.
13th over: England 53-2 (Cook 21, Root 18)
Zulfi’s first ball is pummelled to the square leg boundary by Root, who adds a couple through midwicket. At the end of which, and with Yasir flexing his ball-twiddling muscles and eyeing Cook hungrily, the players take drinks.
12th over: England 47-2 (Cook 21, Root 12)
Yasir Shah makes his long-awaited arrival in the series, and very swiftly launches a loud lbw appeal against Cook, foiled only because the ball would have missed leg stump by a distance. Still, some promising turn here.
11th over: England 44-2 (Cook 20, Root 10)
Zulfiqar brings the spin, and Cook brings the sweep, sending the last delivery of the over scuttling away for four. Right, it appears to be pun o’clock, as I’ve had a minor avalanche - a Belly-ful, if you like - of Bell-related tweets:
@Simon_Burnton If the two-time Tour de France were to dismiss England's incumbent no#3, it'd be 'Froome the Bell tolls'.
@Simon_Burnton if that is Bell's last match then why not simply go for "Bell end"?
@Simon_Burnton Please dissuade readers from composing any more punning tweets, Simon. There's no Bell prize for literature.
10th over: England 39-2 (Cook 16, Root 9)
More short stuff from Wahab to Root, with one ball hitting the batsman with a glancing blow to the chest and the next clearing both batsman and wicketkeeper and racing unmolested to the rope. There are also a couple of full deliveries, just to keep the batters honest.
9th over: England 29-2 (Cook 15, Root 5)
Imran Khan is going at a titchy 1.86 an over, and this is his second maiden.
@Simon_Burnton To be fair, given that he has no-one else to blame, if he does get dropped, could it be a case of All's Bell that ends Bell?
8th over: England 29-2 (Cook 15, Root 5)
In which Paul Reiffel shows off his no-ball-calling skills by making a couple of close calls, one of which was almost certainly not a no ball at all. It’s longer than it should have been but it’s very far from a bad over, Wahab making Joe Root’s life distinctly uncomfortable with a couple of roaring short balls, though he scores a single off one and four off another, top-edged very nearly for six. Cook in between essays a very lovely pull stroke, which earns him one run and a bit of appreciative purring.
7th over: England 21-2 (Cook 14, Root 0)
Phwoar! Cook expunges all memory of his nearly-but-not-quite getting out the previous over with a Michelin-starred cover drive for four. He wisely decides that to so much as attempt another scoring stroke would merely reduce the chances of people remembering that one, and gives us all time to genuflect in its enormous glory.
@Simon_Burnton I'm sure you have loads of similar tweets but sadly, it could be Bell for whom the bell tolls #seewhatididthere
6th over: England 17-2 (Cook 10, Root 0)
Oooh! Cook pulls the ball just past Masood, who had been stationed at backward square for precisely this moment. He gets a run, and Pakistan get the minor morale boost of seeing their trap being blundered into, even if it didn’t actually trap anything. “Sadly, I can’t watch or listen today and find myself in the odd position of actually missing David Lloyd’s voice,” writes Robert Wilson. “Particularly disturbing since, during the last Test, I forced a top-notch, English-speaking French intellectual (they still exist) to listen to five minutes of Bumble’s rambling commentary. She understood not one single solitary word but found it all intensely lyrical, like a pigeon reciting Shakespeare. She then asked me - no word of a lie - if he was good looking! It was quite a difficult moment. I’m still haunted.” I trust you answered in the affirmative.
5th over: England 14-2 (Cook 7, Root 0)
Root, as if to emphasise where the now-watching Bell went horribly wrong, leaves three of the five remaining deliveries as they head wide of off stump, and defends the other two.
England shouldn't look at the scoreboard again until lunch on Sunday @Simon_Burnton
Another one falls! And it’s a lovely delivery, full and moving fractionally away from the bat to take a tiny but clearly audible nick on its way through!
4th over: England 14-1 (Cook 7, Bell 4)
Cook starts the over with England’s first boundary, clipped off his thigh to deep square leg. Wahab is bowling at around the 90mph mark, fast enough to make life uncomfortable and, more specifically, to make Bell uncomfortable as the fifth delivery zips across him and he briefly looks to wave his bat at it inadvisably.
3rd over: England 8-1 (Cook 2, Bell 3)
Four slips - three, a gap and then one - and a short leg in place at the start of the innings. Bell gets a couple of early runs and then sees out the remainder of the over without further scorage, looking uncomfortable only when making a last-moment decision to withdraw the bat as the fifth delivery passed six inches wide of off stump.
2nd over: England 6-1 (Cook 2, Bell 1)
To be fair, it was a sharp catch from Shan Masood. But to be equally fair, he didn’t have to move his hands, just cup them and start celebrating. Given how close he was to the bat, had the ball gone so much as six inches either side it would have been almost uncatchable. Thing is, it didn’t.
Moeen tries to just knock the ball away into the leg side, which is all well and good unless there’s a short leg right there, standing with knees bent and hands poised, and you push the ball right into them.
1st over: England 4-0 (Cook 2, Moeen 1)
Imran Khan’s second delivery is straightforward in every sense of the word, and Cook plays it off his pads for a couple. A leg bye and a Moeen Ali single follow in what is a pretty low-octane opening to the innings.
Imran Khan has the ball, and stands at the end of his run-up. Play.
Players have started to stumble onto the field. Can Alastair Cook do it again, and haul England single-battedly through a marathon second-innings run-accumulation effort? We’re about to find out!
If you’re desperately refreshing and frustrated not to find new stuff, it’s not because the Guardian is broken, it’s because this is a super extra long Friday-style lunch break, to allow plenty of time for Friday prayers. Be reassured, we’ll be back before anything actually happens.
Hello world!
There’s been something of a baton hand-over here at OBO HQ, so please cast aside your Vish-ful thinking and instead send your emails to me here and your tweets to me here, if you wouldn’t mind. But first there’s the matter of lunch, which England will probably enjoy, and Asad Shafiq will probably not, spending it as he presumably is with an icepack on his knee, though there’s a chance he’ll have been whisked off to hospital for some scans. Either way, painful times.
119th over: Pakistan 378 all out
A nasty looking blow sustained by Shafiq who, after a few minuets, decides to carry on. The next ball is short and Shafiq does well to crouch underneath it, before hobbling to square leg to collect his thoughts. A couple of balls later, he’s out trying to beat the infield.
With the field in, Shafiq tries to go big but can only skew the ball to Root at midwicket. End of the innings - brilliant work from England today.
Shafiq swings across the line to a quick delivery from Wood and it strikes him on the inside of the knee and hits the floor amidst a strangle appeal for LBW. The replay shows that the ball misses the top of the back pad and crunches the batsman just above the knee cap. Ouchie.
118th over: Pakistan 378-9 (Shafiq 83, Khan 0)
Imran Khan, who doesn’t have a Test run to his name, is Pakistan’s number 11. Shafiq is turning down singles all over the shop until he sweeps the fourth ball on the full for one. He swipes to mid on but it doesn’t reach Anderson.
117th over: Pakistan 377-9 (Shafiq 82)
A good battle between Wood and Shafiq. A fine yorker is kept out by the Pakistan batsman, who nods in appreciation. A single is taken off the penultimate ball and it’s enough for Wood to see-off Babar. He expects something short, ducks far too early and a yorker wraps him on the knee roll. Hitting leg. Gone.
No idea what he was doing, there. But he’s out.
Babar ducks a yorker (yes, really) and is given out LBW. We have a review...
116th over: Pakistan 376-8 (Shafiq 81, Babar 3)
Tidy from Rashid, who turns one sharply past Babar’s outside edge. But the veteran is off the mark with three around the corner. Shafiq gets a single to the cover fielder on the off side to bring Babar back on strike. A swipe and miss ends the over.
115th over: Pakistan 371-8 (Shafiq 79, Babar 0)
As expected, Shafiq is turning down singles. Though that might be more down to the face that Mark Wood is the bowler. A searing yorker nearly knocks Shafiq off his feet. There’s a muted appeal but the ball was sliding well down – it pitched outside leg and all. Wood goes short for the last couple and Shafiq manages to work him around the corner to retain the strike.
114th over: Pakistan 370-8 (Shafiq 78, Babar 0)
Shah goes trying to slap Rashid through the covers. Babar, the number 10, is a decent bat but presumably Shafiq will still look to shield him from the strike.
Rashid tosses one up and Shah has a heave but can only nick to Stokes at slip. Every England bowler now has a wicket to their name. Yay.
113rd over: Pakistan 369-7 (Shafiq 77, Shah 16)
Shafiq’s continuing to use his feet to the spinners, while Shah is staying rooted to the crease and opening his body to nudge into either side of the wicket. One does one, the other does the other, and another three-run over comes and goes.
112nd over: Pakistan 366-7 (Shafiq 75, Shah 17)
Three from the over as Rashid is brought back into the attack and goes up against a fellow leggie. Shah’s playing him very inside out: looks a bit funky but I’m all for it.
111th over: Pakistan 363-7 (Shafiq 73, Shah 14)
Shafiq dabs a three around the corner and then Shah punches a nice four through cover.
Quickest English spinners to 50 Test wickets in time: 344 days R Tattersall 1 yr, 5 days GP Swann 1/99 MS Panesar 1/133 MM Ali
110th over: Pakistan 356-7 (Shafiq 70, Shah 10)
Stokes is short to Shah who stands up well to work him around the corner for two. The Cumbrian Noise has not only decided that short is the way to go but also that he’s going to do it from around the wicket. But Shah top edges a hook for four before timing a nice leg glance in front of square for another boundary.
109th over: Pakistan 346-7 (Shafiq 70, Shah 0)
Riaz shows some malice, going forward and lofting across the line for four. Tries the same again, even with a change in the field to put two men out at midwicket, but can only top edge to mid on, where Anderson does the rest. Good from Moeen. Yasir Shah is the new man but spends the over at the non-striker’s end. The field goes in for Shafiq to keep him off strike for the next over and he decides to take the boundary on offer, over wide mid on. Shot.
Moeen gets hit for four and responds well, serving up a similar ball which Riaz swings across to and top-edges to Anderson, who makes a difficult catch look easy as.
108th over: Pakistan 338-6 (Shafiq 66, Riaz 2)
Not the best start from Stokes, who bowls one down the leg side despite a few additions to the slip cordon. Better for the remainder.
107th over: Pakistan 335-6 (Shafiq 66, Riaz 1)
A timely wicket, just as this partnership was getting going: Ali sees Safraz coming and Anderson takes a smart catch, low to his left. Riaz is the new batsman and it looks like it’s turning out there: Riaz tries to push forward but the ball takes the inside half of his bat. Then he gets off the mark with an edge just wide of Stokes at slip.
Hafeez immediately after drinks. Malik right after that. Shan after lunch. Misbah start of the day. Now Sarf aftr drinks. break se breakthru
Drinks might want to claim an assist for that one. Ahmed comes down the wicket but Ali spies him and gets one flatter than is chipped to Anderson at wide mid on.
106th over: Pakistan 334-5 (Shafiq 66, Ahmed 32)
Ben Stokes replaces Anderson and is immediately getting a bit more swing than others, just away from the right-hander. Atherton on commentary reckons it’s reverse, Shafiq skews a ball just short of Anderson at gully.
105th over: Pakistan 333-5 (Shafiq 66, Ahmed 31)
Ali’s first go today and immediately Sarfraz is on him, deftly cutting him for four. He sweeps hard next ball, but Mark Wood is lurking on the square leg boundary and collects for just one. Shafiq pushes one to midwicket and then Sarfraz is back at his sweeping best. Again, only for one.
104th over: Pakistan 326-5 (Shafiq 65, Ahmed 25)
These two seem to be able to find singles at will, which is started to frustrate Cook and his bowlers. This time, though, Shafiq gets a single off the glove and has to shake it off at the non-striker’s end. Anderson finishes off the over around the wicket at Shafiq’s head, but he ducks well.
103rd over: Pakistan 324-5 (Shafiq 64, Ahmed 24)
Sarfraz gets a single through the cover fielder off Rashid and Shafiq’s back to try and engineer something. He stays put, though, and in the end plays a cautious sweep behind square leg for one.
Anderson warned for a second time for running on the danger area. One more and he's off for the innings #pakveng
102nd over: Pakistan 320-5 (Shafiq 62, Ahmed 22)
Anderson getting the ball to move into the right-hander, here. Late, too, but Shafiq is able to go with the movement and play it into the leg side.
101st over: Pakistan 318-5 (Shafiq 61, Ahmed 21)
Loose from Shafiq, who comes down the wicket to Rashid but is beaten by the turn and skews the ball into the off side. It falls short of Moeen Ali, who keeps things to one. Ahmed gets off the strike into the leg side before Shafiq stays put and finds Ali with a square drive for another single. A full toss is then swatted for four by Ahmed to end the over.
100th over: Pakistan 311-5 (Shafiq 59, Ahmed 16)
A lap-dab/standing paddle/checked-pull/weird shot gets Ahmed a single around the corner. Shafiq works one nicely off his toes to bring Ahmed back on strike. Anderson tempts Ahmed outside off stump and he throws his wrists at it and nearly nicks behind. He then scoots into a defensive shot, which goes into the off side for no run.
99th over: Pakistan 309-5 (Shafiq 58, Ahmed 15)
Adil Rashid on for Broad. Ahmed’s not going to stay put for a slow bowler, but Rashid has cover on both sides of the wicket. The sweeper on the off side, Moeen Ali, is found second ball, just for a single. Shafiq is more watchful but even he comes down the pitch and swipes, but only to mid-off. No run.
98th over: Pakistan 306-5 (Shafiq 57, Ahmed 13)
Wood makes way for Jimmy Anderson and Ahmed is immediately walking down to the pack leader. Ben Stokes is close in at cover-point and, aware of that, Ahmed is stepping across, too, looking to manufacture something into the leg side. He does in the end, but it’s just one.
97th over: Pakistan 305-5 (Shafiq 57, Ahmed 12)
Hands, from Sarfraz – Broad gives a bit of width and Ahmed sets his feet and guides it effortlessly through the covers for four. Top shooting. Three runs later in the over, as he opens up a touch more and pierces cover-point. Now Shafiq’s in the game, flicking Broad through midwicket for the over’s second boundary. 11 from the over...
96th over: Pakistan 294-5 (Shafiq 53, Ahmed 5)
Shafiq’s first runs of the day come through midwicket, as he works Wood into the region for three. Ahmed immediately gives him back the strike with three of his own, tucked off the pads. And there’s his fifty, brought about with an outside edge that races to third man for four. A 12th fifty.
95th over: Pakistan 284-5 (Shafiq 46, Ahmed 2)
Three balls into the over, Safraz is trapped in front by Broad but this time the ball looks to be safely passing down the leg-side. It’s been a fine spell so far and you’d say he has two more overs left in him. A maiden.
Six out of Misbah's 9 Test hundreds have been these: 100, 101, 101*, 102, 102*, 102* https://t.co/ctT8J3EouU
94th over: Pakistan 284-5 (Shafiq 46, Sarfraz 2)
Ahmed fends one down to give Shafiq the strike. A bit of luck comes his way as he tries to play in front of the wicket but gets a thick inside edge that scuttles just in front of his stumps to Moeen Ali at square leg. Wood’s line to him has been good.
93rd over: Pakistan 283-5 (Shafiq 46, Ahmed 1)
Something of a “Red Bull” run to get today’s and Ahmed’s scoring started: pushing a ball angled into middle and leg to the right of Moeen Ali at mid on and then zipping through to the other end.
92nd over: Pakistan 282-5 (Shafiq 46, Sarfraz 0)
Mark Wood is yer man from the other end: he’s starting wide on the crease to Shafiq who is on the cusp of a 20th Test score of fifty or more. Shafiq, younger and thusly more nimble than Misbah, is able to get a proper dip on his ducks. Wood’s bouncers pass harmlessly over his hunched back.
Excellent opening over ... barrage of short stuff then fifth ball full and Misbah in wrong position to get bat on it
91st over: Pakistan 282-5 (Shafiq 46, Ahmed 0)
A short-leg, Superman at bat-pad and a man on the hook (a slip, too) as Stuart Broad gets the day going. We only have to wait a ball for some short stuff. Misbah ducks under the first but can’t sort himself quickly enough so wears the next one on the top hand. A couple more and he’s trapped in front by a full ball which nips away from Misbah slightly. The captain reviews but soon he’s moving off without scoring. Sarfraz Ahmed comes to the crease.
There’s no inside edge and umpire’s call – the ball would have clipped leg stump – stays with Broad, who gets the wicket of Misbah.
Brilliant change-up by Broad, who goes full after a barrage of short balls and traps Misbah in front. He’s given out LBW but Misbah is reviewing...
Play getting underway here soon.
For Friday prayers, the first session will be two and a half hours long, an hour for lunch, a regular afternoon session and a shorter evening thrash...
Morning everyone.
Vish here, coming live and direct from London town, bringing you all the goings on in Dubai. Glory to Misbah, who ended his latest slow-cooked masterpiece with a 15-run bang in the fading light to reach his ninth Test century.
Vish will be with you shortly. Whilst you wait, here’s Ali Martin’s ode to Misbah-ul-Haq, following the Pakistan’s magnificent century on day one in Dubai.
Misbah-ul-Haq hinted before the current series with England that it could be his last in Test cricket, with the Pakistan captain revealing his preference to leave the stage on a high rather than be hooked unceremoniously from the wings.
We must therefore savour his unbeaten 102 on the first day in Dubai that has put his side seemingly in charge of the second Test, for it could well be his last century in international cricket. But then when a batsman is 41 years and 147 days old, that tends to be the default position anyway.
Related: Misbah-ul-Haq’s century for Pakistan shows he is not slowing down
Continue reading...