At one stage four wickets fell for one run as England’s seamers found reverse swing, and a last wicket partnership between Sohail Khan and Rahat Ali was ended when the former drilled a catch straight back at Moeen.
Advertisement
England: A 3-1 series win against Pakistan will give them the No. 1 ranking provided India don’t win by a margin of 3-0 against West Indies.
England bowler James Anderson says the impressive third Test victory over Pakistan at Edgbaston shows the team can win from “any position”.
“I’m sure Cookie will want a night to mull it over and think what’s going to be best. but we’ve just got to rock up tomorrow with the right mentality to take 10 wickets”. That wicket was Woakes’ 23rd of a prolific series.
Root (62) and James Vince (42) kept Pakistan at bay with a stand of 95 before Bairstow and Ali cashed in against a tiring four-man attack. But a rare misjudgement by the 20-year-old left-hand batsman saw him bowled by Finn as he deliberately left the ball.
It was the end of a more than three-and-a-half-hour innings, with Aslam facing 167 balls including 11 fours.
With a rare sense of symmetry, each of England’s five bowlers took two wickets although it required a devastating spell by Steve Finn and Chris Woakes, which yielded four wickets for just one run, to open up the innings.
But instead they had to content themselves with a session where they took six wickets for 79 runs.
With all their specialist batsmen dismissed, the question for Pakistan was could their tailenders somehow survive the remaining 28 overs to hold out for a draw.
Jimmy Anderson, making his return to the bowling crease after being barred in Pakistan’s first innings for following-through on the pitch, started well for England but it was Stuart Broad who made the first inroad.
On the other hand Pakistan will also likely to undergo two changes; Sami Aslam may be given chance in place of opener Shan Masood whereas Wahab Riaz might be replaced with Imran Khan.
Hales, who made his name in worldwide cricket as a dynamic limited-overs batsman, said playing the situation has been one of the biggest challenges of his Test career. We’ve all seen him fall a little short at times but I thought he got it pretty much spot on in that spell.
Having been bowled out for 297 on the opening day after being sent into bat, England appeared to be staring down the barrel when the tourists reached 257-2 by the final ball of the second day.
Advertisement
Bairstow top-scored with 82 and Ali followed his first-innings half-century with 60 as England reached 414-5 in its second innings at stumps on day four, ensuring nearly certain safety – and possible victory – on the final day. Birmingham-born Ali, who grew up near Edgbaston, struck 19 runs in the first over of Sunday’s play from leg-spinner Shah, including two successive sixes. Bairstow (83) had added just one run to his overnight score when he was lbw to Sohail on review.
