England on the brink of Test defeat
Yasir has the last laugh as England face defeat after brilliant Younis double ton
ALEX HALES trudged off after Yasir Shah, the man he has turned into his enemy at The Kia Oval, had the final word in their unseemly spat. There was, as Mike Atherton dryly observed on Sky, no need for a visit to the third umpire this time.
The demise of Hales, who has failed to cover himself in glory on or off the field in this final Test and wasted a review when he was given out lbw yesterday, somehow summed up England’s plight.
This was meant to be the match where they wrapped up a 3-1 Investec series victory, claimed their ninth Test trophy out of nine and returned to the top of the world rankings a year ahead of schedule.
Instead it is turning into a triumph for a Pakistan side who were on their knees after losing at Edgbaston but have summoned up one last mighty effort to move within sight of a famous and deserved share of the spoils.
England go into the fourth day of the fourth Test perilously placed at 88 for four, still 126 behind, and in need of a miracle from the lower middle order who have bailed them out of trouble so often. It may be beyond them this time.
They can only blame themselves for what looks like being a badly missed chance because, on a pitch with more bounce than any other in this series, England have been outplayed by Misbah-ul-Haq’s hugely impressive team.
A 2-2 draw would certainly exceed all Pakistan’s expectations from a series that England began as firm favourites, but which saw them go behind horribly at Lord’s, bounce back at Manchester and, eventually, Birmingham, but now capitulate in the capital yet again.
Yasir made an emphatic impact at Lord’s but had been quiet since then, with England handling the leg spinner so effectively that he suffered two innocuous Tests and went wicketless in the first innings here.
Now, with scoreboard pressure on England after Pakistan had extended their first innings to 542, Yasir proved to be the destroyer again. Hales was just the first of three big wickets to fall to him. The first will be the most satisfying because Hales has behaved churlishly towards Yasir ever since he disputed his catch in the first innings and lost 15 per cent of his match fee for taking issue with TV official Joel Wilson.
Yasir certainly came out on top in their little skirmish and then quickly added the wickets of the hapless James Vince and the key scalp of Joe Root to leave England in disarray and question marks remaining over their top order.
With Alastair Cook being the first to fall (below), edging a good one from the recalled Wahab Riaz, England look sure to end the Test summer on the lowest of notes and needing to take a long, hard look at their options before they head to India this winter. Hales can no longer be certain of his place after finishing with just 145 runs in this series at 18 while Vince surely blew his chance of touring with his softest dismissal yet in patting Yasir to cover. Pakistan had no such problems when they batted with the real Younis Khan — not the jittery jack-in-a-box of the first three Tests — standing up with a monumental 218. Younis has a habit of going big and this was his fifth Test double century and his first outside Asia to go with the triple hundred he scored against Sri Lanka in Karachi seven years ago. The old warrior, reprieved by technology after a rare mistake by umpire Bruce Oxenford when Younis had made 133, went to his double hundred in style, swinging Moeen Ali into the stands as he appears to do almost at will. By the time England finally got their man, Jimmy Anderson winning the most narrow of lbw calls from Marais Erasmus, Pakistan were more than 200 ahead and in a position to dictate terms for the rest of this match. The other Pakistan batsmen proved equally tough nuts to crack, Jonny Bairstow pulling off an excellent one-handed catch to dismiss Sarfraz Ahmed off Chris Woakes but being fortunate to stump Wahab off Moeen.
Wahab had been dropped by Cook in the same over, the 15th missed chance by England in this series, and that sloppiness remains the biggest source of frustration for a coach in Trevor Bayliss who puts such great store by quality fielding.
Anderson had not bowled for an hour before lunch and an hour and a half after the interval — Cook surprisingly stuck with Moeen for an expensive six-over afternoon spell — but he finally returned to claim Younis before Finn had the last word in seeing Sohail Khan well caught by Stuart Broad.
It was too little too late and Pakistan should wrap up victory here in four days unless Bairstow and Moeen, in particular, can summon up one last, defiant effort.