Pakistan’s Misbahul Haq and England’s Alastair Cook pose with the trophy after the Test at the Oval in London Sunday.
Advertisement
“This team deserves that [going to number one] for six years of no cricket at home, sometimes people think it’s easy – the UAE suits us, we win – but just getting every day away from the country, without family and friends and all games out of Pakistan, it’s really hard”, Misbah told reporters at The Oval on Sunday after Pakistan won with more than a day to spare.
There remain questions as to how they will cope when their veteran stars Younis Khan and Misbah-ul-Haq inevitably retire, and their lack of a fifth bowler to relieve the strain on their four-man attack cost them on several occasions – with England able to punish exhausted bowlers in long final sessions – not to mention the poor fielding, a real concern for both sides who repeatedly let the other off the hook with dropped catches. But the left-arm seamer had by then already broken England’s resistance when he got Chris Woakes run out off a direct throw and then had Bairstow caught at covers off successive deliveries.
England fell short in two objectives when they lost by 10 wickets to Pakistan at The Oval – one identified at the start of the year, and a second which presented itself just last week.
“It is frustrating for the side and it is an area we have to work on”. Bairstow was dismissed for a fighting 81 soon after.
England trailed Pakistan by 126 runs with four men down at the close of the day, after Younis’ 218 put Pakistan in the driving seat with 542 runs in response to England’s first innings total of 328.
England got through the first 45 minutes without losing a wicket, and early spells from Yasir Shah (four for 49), Mohammad Amir and Wahab Riaz, before Sohail Khan struck nearly immediately. Bairstow has now scored 992 Test runs (from 16 innings) in 2016, meaning only Andy Flower (who scored 1,045 runs from 16 innings in 2000) has managed more.
Pakistan won the first Test at Lord’s and England was victorious in Manchester and Birmingham. “It was tough, so I chose to face as many balls as possible and wear out the bowlers so that I can score runs later on”, Chandimal said after the day’s play.
Sri Lanka captain Angelo Mathews won the toss and elected to bat first on the first morning Saturday but his decision threatened to backfire when the top order collapsed. The result at the Kia Oval means the four-match series ends drawn at 2-2.
Advertisement
It’s a fate that had befallen Anderson in the previous Test at Edgbaston and it was his lbw dismissal by the part-time spin of Iftikhar Ahmed that broke a last-wicket stand of 39.
