Bess helps England take lead
Toporder flops once again but nightwatchman puts hosts on top
LEEDS: Dominic Bess belied his position as a nightwatchman by guiding England into a first-innings lead against Pakistan on a rain-marred day of the second Test at Headingley on Saturday.
England were 199/3 at tea, 25 runs in front, after rain meant there was no play before lunch.
Bess was unbeaten on 40 , having scored 57 on debut during England’s thumping nine-wicket defeat by Pakistan in the first Test at Lord’s. Together with Dawid Malan (27*) he had put on an unbroken 61 for the fourth wicket after England captain Joe Root fell for 45 to the disappointment of his Yorkshire home crowd.
England were 106/2 68 runs adrift of Pakistan’s lowly 174, when play eventually got under way some several hours after the scheduled start time.
Root was 29 not out and Bess, who came in as a nightwatchman late Friday following Alastair Cook’s exit for 44, unbeaten on nought. Bess, selected primarily as an off-spinner but yet to take a Test wicket, made light of the overcast, bowler-friendly conditions to cover-drive left-arm quck Mohammad Amir for a wellstruck four.
It was one of several stylish boundaries hit by the 20-year-old Bess that included a well-timed on-drive off Mohammad Abbas.
With Bess playing shots like a top-order batsman, England lost Root, who has been criticised for a repeated failure to convert Test fifties into his hundreds. But on Saturday he exited for 45.
The right-hander, chasing a scrambled seam delivery from Amir angled across him, succeeded only in getting a thin edge to wicket-keeper Sarfraz Ahmed, with the Pakistan captain joyfully accepting the easy catch.
Left-hander Malan made an uncertain start before finding his touch with several boundaries, including a square driven four off Abbas. And when Bess swept legspinner Shadab Khan, England had the lead. Extras (b8,lb9) 17 Total (six wkts; 86 ovrs) 279 FOW: 1-53, 2-104, 3-138, 4-200, 5-212, 6-260
Bowling: Amir 19-3-59-2; Abbas 17-6-53-0; Ali 16-4-57-1; Ashraf 17-4-43-2; Khan 17-2-50-1 *scoreboard updated at the
time of going to press