But Ballance dug in and Moeen provided watchful support to take the hosts through to tea without further loss.
Advertisement
“Last time, it felt like if I didn’t have a good day it really got to me – whereas this time round, so be it”.
“But that doesn’t always happen, and I think we’ve put ourselves in a decent position”.
” If someone had gone on to get a big hundred 350 would have been better, but we’re in the game now”.
“So overall we’re pretty happy with that, and if the conditions are the same tomorrow (Thursday), our bowlers will be very happy”.
The care he took over 150 deliveries, and nearly three-and-a-half hours, spread to Moeen – who batted against his usually carefree instincts. “He hasn’t quite been at his best this year – there have been a few factors in that, (but) physically he’s now better and has had a couple of things sorted out in the last week”.
The 66-run partnership that followed helped Cook’s team up to a respectable score, as Ali played with trademark fluency and Ballance accumulated nicely. I got my next chance in 2011 and there too I didn’t do well.
Sohail’s previous two Tests, the last nearly five years ago, had brought him a solitary wicket at the cost of 245 runs.
Hales got a faint edge and Joe Root, a double century-maker at Old Trafford, played off the back foot and offered a simple catch at first slip.
Captain Alastair Cook looked in fine form advancing to 45 from 52 balls with a series of cuts and drives but perished LBW to Rahat Ali when the scoreboard was showing 75.
Much therefore depended on the next stand between James Vince and Gary Ballance, both in need of a significant contribution for their own Test futures as well as England’s prospects here. Ballance and Moeen progressed the score to 224 before the former was caught behind by wicketkeeper Sarfraz Ahmed off Yasir Shah – the leg-spinner’s sole victim of the day.
And when Chris Woakes, the allrounder, over-pitched on his Warwickshire home ground, Azhar elegantly drove him through the covers for another boundary.
England levelled the four-match series at 1-1 with a crushing 330-run win in the second Test at Old Trafford – a margin of victory that was testimony to the tourists’ batting woes.
Advertisement
“I’d played six Tests and taken eight or nine wickets – which isn’t a record you want to shout about”, said Woakes at an event staged by series sponsors Investec.
