Adil Rashid, who was an integral part of England’s tour to UAE previous year, took seven wickets in his County Championship match and Bayliss admitted that he is “very” tempted to play Rashid in the final Test and going forward as well.
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“Quite simply, the difference with his bowling in that spell was his discipline of length”, said Bayliss. Talking about Younis Khan Mickey Arthur said that Younis is a professional player who doesn’t really need any counseling and have settled his weak areas.
The damage that England had inflicted before tea was such that a last-wicket stand of 50 between Sohail Khan and Rahat Ali was no more than an inconvenience.
Were he to get there, the Nottinghamshire right-hander would become the first Englishman to register centuries in all three global formats – he has three in one-day internationals and one in Twenty20 – but the closest he has come remains the watchful 94 compiled during the drawn third Test with Sri Lanka at Lord’s in June.
The second-wicket pair shut England out for nearly 62 overs in a stand of 181 first time round, and soon appeared at home again. Easily the most controversial clash between the two teams at The Oval came in 2006, as skipper-at-the-time refused to lead his team back out onto the field after tea on day four. Ali, who also made a first-innings fifty, was named man-of-the-match. “If the pitch is suitable for two spinners then we’ll play two spinners”.
It proved to Cook that England can still be successful even if they do not take charge from the outset. Though he was to be bowled shouldering arms, Aslam left the ball with the utmost maturity. In the past we’ve been very good when we’ve been ahead, but this was the first game in a while when we’ve been behind and fought back’. It finally arrived when Broad opened after lunch with Moeen at the city end.
It meant Pakistan were left just 48 to chase, having amassed a huge first-innings lead thanks to centuries from Saeed Anwar (176) and Saleem Malik (100) as the tourists declared on 521-8 in response to England’s 326 – John Crawley (106) cracking a first Test ton.
Broad did not take a wicket, but the runs dried up, and Moeen did.
It was the most important of all too, Aslam for once making a mistake about which ball to leave and allowing one to hit the top of his off stump and limit his match aggregate to 152.
Batsmen to make upward movement following the Edgbaston, Galle and Jamaica Tests include Alastair Cook to seventh (up by 1 place), David Warner to ninth (up by 1 place), Angelo Mathews to 10th (up by 3 places), Ajinkya Rahane to 11th (up by 4 places), Jonny Bairstow to 15th (up by 1 place), Kusal Mendis to 17th (up by 4 places), Azhar Ali to 18th (up by 8 places), BJ Watling and Tom Latham to joint-28th, Moeen Ali to 33rd (up by 8 places), Gary Ballance to 36th (up by 5 places) and Jermaine Blackwood 44th (up by 10 places).
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Anderson followed Broad in reversing it from the pavilion end, and it was attractive craftsmanship. Edgbaston’s crowd was roused. The pace bowler took two crucial wickets – his first of the series – on day five, removing Pakistan captain Misbah-ul-Haq and opener Sami Aslam. “It reverse-swung a little bit”. This pressure resulted in Azhar being caught in the slips in the 31st over. He had kept on scoring, never blocking, in the hope of reaching his maiden century second time round.
