Stokes strikes late to give England hope of unlikely Test triumph
all-rounder defies injury to bowl and claim two late wickets pakistan not out of sight with a lead of 244 and two men left
Ben Stokes had been standing at second slip pestering Joe Root to let him bowl for ages. In the end, Root caved in and eight balls later Stokes clawed England back into this Test.
It is the beauty of Test cricket that a game that takes five days can turn in 30 minutes. England still have lots of work ahead of them today, but after spending so long on the wrong end of this game, they have a sniff after Pakistan collapsed from 101 for four to 137 for eight, a lead of 244.
Stokes took two for 11 from four overs, nipping out Pakistan’s last batting threat, Mohammad Rizwan, for 27, before switching to the Brian Statham End and bouncing out Shaheen Afridi. Now this master of lost causes will fancy the run chase.
With Chris Woakes matching Stokes’s figures, picking up the key wickets of Babar Azam and Azhar Ali, and Stuart Broad chipping in with two for 23, Root’s seamers rescued a dire situation with a hint of reverse swing after England conceded a first innings lead of 107.
Stokes is playing as a specialist batsman and you could tell being a passenger was getting to him. He was bowled for a duck and followed it yesterday by dropping a catch off James Anderson at slip. Something was going to snap.
The warning came at tea. While everyone else munched on their sandwiches, Stokes was out in the middle bowling on a used pitch, testing out his thigh injury.
At second slip he dropped unmissable hints to Root: bowling the ball round-arm back to the bowlers and scratching out his run up. When Root relented it felt like a last chance. Pakistan were 120 for five, a lead of 227, and in a position to ease to the close and resume today in control. Instead, they are now sweating on Yasir Shah slogging some boundaries this morning and defending what will be a tricky run chase against two wrist-spinners on a turning pitch. Pakistan are still favourites but England have a chance which looked gone in the afternoon, when Stokes dropped Abid Ali on five and plunged Anderson into one of his dark moods.
There can be no better image for a government social-distancing campaign this summer than a photograph of Anderson’s brooding look moments after that chance went down Broad has played 118 Test matches with Anderson and knew to stay well clear as England walked off at tea. Anderson was ticking and he barely uttered a word for the rest of the day to his team-mates. When he was next
41 James Anderson’s bowling average this summer, his worst in a home year of Test cricket
Stuart Broad’s 12 bowling average this summer. He is also averaging 102 with the bat
involved, he missed a half chance for a catch at point and fumbled a stop at mid-on. There was a blank look on his face as he worked through his second spell of four wicketless overs.
Anderson has taken six wickets in three Tests this summer at an average of 41.16. He has never had to work so hard with the Duke ball with a strike rate of a wicket every 92 balls, his highest ever in home Tests. He has found 1.53 degrees of lateral movement, the least of his long career on pitches that have offered assistance for seamers.
Anderson has not bowled badly this summer, and better than his figures suggest. The control has been reliable as ever, but he badly needed Stokes to cling on to the catch because after 154 Tests, even great players need a lift.
Whereas Broad has responded to being left out of the first Test of the summer with 21 wickets at 12, Anderson has managed three wickets in two games since being rotated out the attack for the second West Indies Test. Instead, Woakes has stepped up to become England’s most dangerous seam and swing bowler with 15 wickets at 15.80, looking more penetrative when he has replaced Anderson in the attack. Anderson is ten short of 600, a magical personal achievement. But he is likely to only play one of the remaining two Tests this summer. Next season feels a long way off, especially with so much uncertainty over the schedule.
An empty Ageas Bowl, populated by a handful of stewards wearing PPE, is not the way an England great should bow out.
Anderson is not alone in his thoughts. Jos Buttler has had a dreadful Test behind the stumps and a middling score of 38 did not salvage his errors. He cost England 111 in runs in missing Shan Masood twice on 45 as he went on to make 156. His confidence looks shot with the gloves and he missed several regulation takes yesterday.
Buttler took 30 balls to move off his overnight 15 and Pope started carefully, too, as he moved past fifty. Pakistan had to wait for their breakthrough. It was worth it. Naseem Shah’s raw pace, and aggression was riveting viewing. He hit the pitch hard and steepling bounce found the splice of Pope’s bat with gully taking the catch.
That was the only wicket in the first session but England lost 60 for five after lunch to tumble to 219 all out as the wrist spinners took over.
Yasir bowled a straight ball through Buttler’s bat-pad to hit the stumps. Bess edged a leg break to slip and Woakes was bowled playing a horrible swipe to a straight ball as Yasir took three wickets for four runs in 27 balls.
Pakistan held back Shadab Khan, but he needed just 21 balls to finish off England.
A 107 run deficit felt huge on this pitch but Masood was caught down the leg side and Abid failed to make the most of Stokes’s mistake, gifting his wicket to Bess. Stokes snaffled a similar edge off Babar Azam for Woakes’s first wicket, which he followed with a full ball that reversed slightly to pin Azhar leg before.
A 48-run stand between Asad Shafiq and Rizwan felt as if it was taking the game away from England but a superb pick up and throw on the run from Dom Sibley, a hat tip for his improved fitness, brought a much-needed run out.
Enter Stokes. Rizwan, worried about the bouncer, shuffled across and was lbw. Broad overturned a not out on review to remove Shadab and Stokes served up a bouncer that Shaheen flapped at. An absorbing Test is set up for what could be a fine finish.