Taming of Yasir came straight out of book
AT 4.15 on Saturday, Joe Root cut Yasir Shah to deep point, where Mohammad Hafeez fumbled the ball and allowed the batsmen to return for a second.
It encouraged Root to scurry back to complete a superb 250. But also contained within the vignette was a statistic which may prove of wider significance to this engrossing series.
For Hafeez’s misfield also meant Yasir (right) had conceded 200 runs in the innings, the first bowler to do so in a Test in England since Ian Botham, of all people, took three for 217 against Pakistan at The Oval in 1987.
And, yes, this was the same Yasir who had tormented England in the first Test at Lord’s, taking 10 for 141 in the match and supposedly underlining one of cricket’s truisms about English batsmen and their fleeting acquaintance with spin bowling.
Actually, it was not quite as simple as that, as the England dressing-room realised once they had sat down and taken stock of their defeat in the first Test. They concluded that Yasir had to be treated less like Shane Warne, who used to love ripping his legbreaks, and more like Anil Kumble, who relied more on accuracy and over-spin.
In short, they resolved to play straighter, all but cutting out the cross-bat shots that had proved their downfall at Lord’s. Root did sweep Yasir square for four on Friday afternoon, but only once he was into his sixties. It was a reward he felt he had earned, not a stroke of first resort.
Even so, Root later admitted the shot had made him twitchy, as if it had briefly reminded him of his firstinnings demise a week earlier, when he top-edged a slog-sweep on 48. But England have spent the last two days putting that nervous energy to good use. Slowly but surely, Yasir has been neutered.
This is not to say the war has been won — merely a battle within it. Yasir did not take 86 wickets in his first 13 Tests without being a highly canny purveyor of leg-breaks and googlies, and an astute reader of angles and intentions.
Equally, the manner in which England capitulated at Lord’s suggested Yasir had been honing an art that made Warne — who has been passing on his tips — such an irresistible competitor: the art of sewing doubt in the batsman’s mind, of lulling him into playing the man, not the ball.
As the great Yorkshire slow leftarmer Wilfred Rhodes liked to say: ‘If the batsman thinks it’s spinning, it’s spinning.’ Trevor Bayliss, though, is a streetwise coach, and his team are a receptive bunch. It helped their cause when Alastair Cook won a vital toss on Friday morning, because it meant that Yasir — for the first time in his four Tests against England — would have to bowl first on an unresponsive pitch.
Cook and Root then showed the rest how it could be done, adding 185 for the second wicket, and condemning Yasir to first-day figures of none for 112. There were no frills, but — crucially — no alarms. The dressing-room took note.
Root ended up milking Yasir for 85 runs from the 143 balls he delivered to him, and Cook for 39 from 54. Jonny Bairstow, who had been bowled twice by Yasir at Lord’s, clouted 31 from 28. Even James Vince, who perished in familiar fashion on the drive to Rahat Ali, had already hit Yasir for a quartet of fours.
Only when the nightwatchman Chris Woakes, having eased his way to 58, offered a tame return catch did Pakistan’s leg-spinner taste any joy. But it was a Pyrrhic victory: he had already conceded 139 runs. By the time England called it a day at 589 for eight — their second-highest total against Pakistan — Yasir was nursing an analysis of 54-6-213-1. Only three others have conceded more in a Test innings in this country. Reassuringly for his fans, he could still crack a smile, even after Sarfraz Ahmed had dropped Bairstow. England, though, will have to keep their game faces intact. Edgbaston, the venue for the next Test, has provided more help to spinners in recent years than many imagine, as has The Oval, which hosts the series finale. One innings does not a busted flush make. But, for the time being at least, they have avoided the nightmare scenario in which Yasir Shah assumes the psychological role once played by Shane Warne. Over the course of a fourmatch series, half the battle can be in the mind.