However, if Steve Smith’s side wins the third Test, then it will join Pakistan on 111 points and will be ranked above Misbah-ul-Haq’s side when the points are calculated beyond the decimal point.
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Pakistan were bowled out for 542 in the 1st innings of the match as Younis Khan played a brilliant knock of 218 runs and Asad Shafiq scored 109 runs.
This series has not been won and, save for vital contributions from Jonny Bairstow and Moeen, those batting frailties might have seen them lose it.
Ali, who had frustrated Pakistan with a first-innings 108, replaced fellow left-hander Ballance and promptly clipped his first ball, a leg-stump half-volley from Sohail, for four.
Consecutive half-century stands failed to prevent England being dismissed for 253, leaving the tourists with the formality of knocking off the 40 runs needed for victory, ensuring the Investec Test series ended 2-2. The series is therefore drawn 2-2, and it is Pakistan who may be set to go top the world for the first time in their history.
Apart from the second Test, Pakistan’s cricket was admirable for a country that had not played Test cricket in 2016.
Sarfraz Ahmed (44) and Younis stretched their seventh-wicket partnership to 77 runs against a four-man seam attack before Bairstow caught Ahmed with a one-handed diving catch off Chris Woakes (3-82) in England’s only success of the first session.
Amir’s first scoring shot came off his 24th delivery when he heaved a big six over mid-wicket off Ali and stayed unbeaten for his career-best score.
The score at that stage was 434 for 8, the lead a healthy but still precarious 106 – only three runs more, in fact, than the deficit that England had overcome in last week’s third Test at Edgbaston.
“As a senior player there are lots of expectations”, Younis told Sky Sports.
He and Stuart Broad, whose Twitter observations on the same topic were not appreciated by the match referee, were respectively fined 15 and 20 per cent of their fees for the Test.
Debutant Iftikhar Ahmed had him caught leg before on 17.
Moeen, who made a century in the first innings, played freely from the start and he and Bairstow added 65 for the sixth wicket to give England hope.
Curiously, despite the overcast conditions after lunch, Cook brought on part-time spinner Root and often expensive specialist off-break bowler Moeen Ali for eight consecutive overs from the Pavilion End as James Anderson, England’s all-time leading wicket-taker, waited in the outfield.
Ramiz said that the combination of Wahab Riaz and Yasir Shah would prove positive for the Pakistan side.
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After Sri Lanka resumed at 299 for seven after lunch, Rangana Herath retired after getting hit by the ball in the abdomen and did not return to bat.
