Younus (218) helped Pakistan pile up 542 all out on day three of the fourth Investec Test, before England perhaps betrayed the weariness inflicted by 146 overs in the field as they stumbled to 88 for four at stumps.
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The tourists started the day 12 runs ahead with four wickets in hand at The Oval, but England made hard work of claiming the remaining wickets, with Younis taking full advantage.
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. But Younis’s magnificence transcended everything else. By that time he had seen Woakes remove Misbah-ul-Haq and Iftikhar Ahmed in the space of four balls, the captain edging to gully and the debutant well held by a scrambling Moeen at mid-on off a top-edged pull.
Having waited 13 balls to add to his overnight total, and with a handful of cherry-picked boundaries to keep his innings ticking along, the first real indication that Younis was set to produce a masterpiece came in the final over before lunch.
Bairstow took the attack to Pakistan’s bowlers as he twice cover-drove Wahab Riaz for four. There were more action in the 122nd over when England captain Alastair Cook dropped Riaz at first slip. Gary Ballance (4) and Jonny Bairstow (14) were in the middle.
And their highest-ever run-getter in Test cricket – he’s scored more than 9,000 – gave poor Moeen Ali a bad pasting in the process, leaving England’s first-innings centurion with bowling figures of 2-128.
Speaking when he broke Miandad’s record last October, Younis admitted: “My wish is that I become the first Pakistani to reach 10,000 runs”.
Thanks mainly to him, and a tail that wagged rather more than it has done before this, Pakistan left England trailing by 214 runs. Alex Hales was trapped plumb in front and James Vince might have played his last Test for England, for a while at least, after departing for a duck.
Younis, by contrast, was in no hurry to get his innings rolling.
Yasir’s return to form was timely.
“To score more than 9,000 Test match runs and 32 centuries, that says something about the man”. England who batted first were knocked out for 328, and the Asian side had got a marginal lead of twelve runs.
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The breakthrough finally arrived in the second hour of the morning, as Woakes – who had shared the morning honours with Anderson before being switched to the Vauxhall End to take advantage of a stiff outswinger’s breeze – found a flawless bail-trimming line and length to demand a defensive jab from Sarfraz.
