First-innings runs might, once again, come at a premium, but nevertheless with the last pair together, albeit one of them Moeen, Alastair Cook might, fleetingly, have fancied calling them in and having a tilt at the Pakistan batsmen for a few overs.
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As England themselves demonstrated in the first innings, when a spate of let-offs allowed Jonny Bairstow and Moeen Ali to engineer their own recovery from 110 for 5, opportunities on this pitch can be hard to recreate when they are allowed to go begging.
The stands been Bairstow and Moeen, and Moeen and Woakes, left Pakistan dispirited.
Captain Alistair Cook and Joe Root took over the responsibility to rebuild the innings from 23 for 1 and nearly succeeded in doing so when Sohail Khan struck again, cleaning up the English captain, who had scored 35 runs off 50 balls and was looking good.
At that stage, Ali was still 11 runs shy of a hundred.
“(Australia’s) Mitchell Johnson did it to me past year.
“I have worked on my technique quite a bit against the shorter and quicker ball. I’ve stayed calm, and I wasn’t fazed by it all”. We’d take 320 from where we were and the wicket at the end was a big wicket. “I feel like I’m in good form now and I’m happy”.
However, the 29-year-old’s innings on Thursday was the third of his Test centuries and the second of his season after his 155 not out against Sri Lanka at Chester-le-Street in May.
Ali was last man out when his hook off Sohail was caught in the deep Shah.
Talking about these failures in the field, Pakistan’s bowling coach Mushtaq Ahmed said that dropping catches are not the trademark of a good team.
At 74 for four, Cook’s decision to bat first looked questionable. Wahab meanwhile, had 3 for 93 after doing the damage at the top of the order, while Mohammad Amir took both remaining wickets and gave up 80 runs.
Wahab was the inspiration behind that implosion, Joe Root edging him behind on 26 before James Vince, the victim of a beautifully brutal delivery, did likewise.
Amir was bowling well too, but his reward would not come – and when Azhar put down a straightforward slip chance, the left-armer kicked the ground in understandable frustration.
Azhar should have held the first chance in the slips, off an understandably frustrated Amir.
Moeen dropped on 15 – clipped firmly off his legs and Azhar, at short leg, can not hold on to one that barely qualifies as a chance.
England lead the four-match series 2-1.
Before play began players, officials and spectators observed a minute’s silence in memory of the 72 people killed during an explosion at a hospital in Quetta, south-west Pakistan, on Monday.
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There was further sadness, for the tourists especially, when it was confirmed after lunch that Pakistan’s Hanif Mohammad, one of cricket’s greatest batsmen, had died aged 81 on Thursday.
