England slump to 10-wicket defeat against Pakistan to leave series drawn

But instead he was out for nought when he chipped Shah, England’s tormentor-in-chief across London at Lord’s, to Pakistan captain Misbah-ul-Haq at short extra-cover.

Spinner Yasir Shah took 5-71 and, set a paltry 40 to win, Azhar Ali sealed the match with a six soon after tea. “But I believe I’m good enough to do that and fingers crossed that’s round the corner”.

The best part came in as Younis dedicated his double to to the Pakistani great Hanif Mohammad, who lost his life after prolonged illness. The low-key 2-0 win against Sri Lanka at the start of the summer concealed a multitude of sins.

It is an unsustainable collective shortfall for a Test team with aspirations to top the world rankings.

Younis’s 218 was the centrepiece of Pakistan’s first-innings 542 all out.

Hales’ uncertain position will doubtless be one of the “tough decisions” anticipated by coach Trevor Bayliss before the selectors pick their squad next month to tour Bangladesh and India.

Riaz day’s work was brought to a premature end two balls into his 12th over when Oxenford handed him his third and final strike. England, however, have another six Tests scheduled before the end of the year.

A first-innings total of 328 was never enough.

Neither James Vince’s introduction to Test cricket or Ballance’s return was a success, with Alastair Cook and Joe Root scoring 935 between them at an average of 66.78, compared to Hales, Vince and Ballance’s 498 at 22.63.

The timing of his intervention was as shattering as the spell itself, coming as it did with England a mere five runs shy of parity, and with two in-form men at the crease who might well have backed themselves to eke out the sort of three-figured lead that could have put their opponents under pressure in the fourth innings. But by then the damage had already been done.

Shortly before lunch, however, Shah deceived Moeen with a quicker delivery and the left-hander, on 32, nicked another catch to a gleeful Sarfraz.

Ballance’s, via the same method, was just infuriating, the loose shot that proved his downfall illustrative of a technique that just looks too fallible at this level.

Just like Hales, he was so sure he hi it, but in vain. They have lost twice to Pakistan, and once each to South Africa and Australia.

Now after winning the 4th Test and leveling the series, Khan who scored double ton told what really worked behind his such superb bounce back.

“Those four wickets in the evening session hurt us as a team but we’ve been in these tricky situations before and we’ll be fighting as hard as we can tomorrow to come out and fight to save this match”, said England paceman Steven Finn.

It was not the first time either this summer that England have let a Test drift away. One moment Wahab threw down the stumps with terrific athleticism, the next he was warned a third time for running on the pitch and banned.

It’s a fate that had befallen Anderson in the previous Test at Edgbaston and it was his lbw dismissal by the part-time spin of Iftikhar Ahmed that broke a last-wicket stand of 39.