It’s another uphill task
England toil as fielders throw away chances
EDGBASTON II — The Sequel? England will again have to do it the hard way, as they did in the third Test, if they are going to win this series 3-1, take their ninth Test trophy out of nine and move closer to world No 1.
There are similarities in the way they came from behind to win in Birmingham and a final Test that Pakistan dominated at The Kia Oval yesterday, moving 12 runs beyond England’s 328 with four wickets in hand.
At Edgbaston, England conceded a first-innings lead of 103 — yet fought back brilliantly to win.
They will not want to trail by any more today if they are to pull off another great escape.
The second day belonged to Pakistan and their century makers Asad Shafiq and Younis Khan, who took advantage of perfect batting conditions to provide another twist to this Investec series.
Nothing has frustrated coach Trevor Bayliss more since his arrival last year than England’s fielding and yesterday they dropped three more chances.
England certainly had a shocker in a morning session when their tally of missed chances in this series rose to 14, none more so than Alex Hales, whose awful early fumble set the tone.
Just before it emerged Hales had been fined 15 per cent of his match fee for an uninvited visit to TV umpire Joel Wilson on Thursday, he dropped the man whose disputed catch so infuriated him on the first morning.
Yasir Shah was made aware of England’s displeasure, Hales and Jimmy Anderson telling him what they thought on the field.
The England opener was subsequently forced to pay up for complaining about the decision and making inappropriate comments to Wilson.
Hales seemed more focused on abusing Yasir than dismissing him when he put down a straightforward chance off Chris Woakes first ball of the innings and the English batsman could be later seen seemingly calling Azhar Ali a cry baby.
That would be fine if Hales had been scoring heavily but, with an average of 19 this series, he would be better advised concentrating on his batting than scrapes with the opposition and officialdom.
At least the miss was not costly as Yasir soon fell to Steven Finn, but the second of England’s three errors was just as crucial as Pakistan dropping Moeen Ali on nine.
Asad Shafiq should have gone on seven when he slashed a difficult chance off Woakes that was dropped by a diving Anderson.
Shafiq duly moved on to his first century in England, despite spending 16 balls on 99, in a stand of 150 with Younis.
It took a brilliant diving catch by Stuart Broad at mid-wicket off Finn — the guilty party for the third England miss when he dropped Azhar off his own bowling — to finally dismiss Shafiq and keep England in the hunt.
Younis, however, proved impossible to budge as he showed the qualities that have made him one of Pakistan’s alltime greats with an average in excess of 53 — and now a mighty 32 Test tons to his name.
England desperately needed inroads with the second new ball and two came in an over from Woakes before Pakistan had moved in front, Misbahul-Haq falling to a sharp snaffle by Hales and the debutant Iftikhar Ahmed giving it away to a tumbling Moeen at mid-on.
If England can wrap this innings up quickly today they will again be favourites, but Younis remains on 101.
They will be concerned that Moeen was again expensive, going at more than five runs an over but claiming Azhar with the help of a review to a catch by Jonny Bairstow.