Half-century for Crawley as rain-soaked day ends in draw

Zak Crawley marked his return to the England side with a half-century as the rain-ruined second Test meandered to a draw on the final day at the Ageas Bowl.

Play did not begin until 3.20pm as an overnight deluge left the outfield – and particularly the bowlers’ runups – in a soggy state, leaving only a box-ticking session of 38.1 overs to play out before a forgettable week in Southampton was consigned to the history books.

England finished on 110 for four before the inevitable outcome was agreed, with Crawley helping himself to 53.

They were low-intensity runs but, having been left out of the past two Tests to accommodate an extra bowler, the 22-year-old will have enjoyed his time in the middle as well as the chance to remind the selectors of his value.

The teams will spend the next three days locked down at the venue before the series decider gets under way on Friday with England 1-0 up.

Dom Sibley made 32 before being strangled down leg in familiar fashion, with Mohammad Abbas taking two wickets and Yasir Shah the last scalp of the match.

Just 96.2 overs were possible across the first four days, with progress running to a standstill over the weekend and the willingness of umpires Richard Kettleborough and Michael Gough to get the game going drawing plenty of scrutiny.

The downpour left them no choice about deferring the scheduled 11am start this time, with the ground saturated

There was another light shower during the first pitch inspection of the day and another four were made under increasingly bright skies before a decision was made to begin almost 24 hours after the teams had last been in the middle.

England captain Joe Root told Sky Sports after the match: “We were really excited about this week and it’s disappointing not to play as much cricket as we’d have liked but we’ve coped with it as best we can.”

Joe Root: “Disappointing”.