Pakistan crush England to level series

Pakistan’s 10-wicket win over England in the fourth and final Test match at the Kennington Oval, has seen them become a contender to be ranked the number one Test team in the world, which if happens, skipper Misbah-ul-Haq says will be a sign of recognition of their success despite being unable to play any games at home.

“It’s been a great series to be part of, two good teams playing some good cricket”, he said in the post-match presentation.

England dropped as many as four chances in Pakistan’s first innings, giving reprieves to Asad Shafiq, Azhar Ali, Yasir Shah and Wahab Riaz.

By the time the championship resumes, England will be practising for their first one-day worldwide against Pakistan – leaving, conceivably, another brief last-minute chance in mid-September for Bayliss to appraise himself in person of the plausible contenders.

ICC Match Referee Richie Richardson imposed the fine, stating Pakistan were found to be one over short once time allowances for drinks breaks, wickets, medical treatment and delays by the England batsmen were taken into consideration. “It’s a fair result (of the series) in the end”.

England resumed yesterday at 88-4 but the early loss of Ballance, wafting outside off stump and edging Sohail Khan to Sarfraz Ahmed, left Moeen and Jonny Bairstow standing defiant.

With tours to Bangladesh and India coming up, another major concern for England will be their spin bowling; Moeen Ali is unable to give his captain enough of either a wicket taking threat or adequate control with the ball to keep pressure on sides. Bairstow has now scored 992 Test runs (from 16 innings) in 2016, meaning only Andy Flower (who scored 1,045 runs from 16 innings in 2000) has managed more.

“But apart from that incident. we have talked about the cricket for 99.9 per cent of the series”.

The partnership between Marsh and Smith lasted 234 balls. “After being 2-1 down, losing the second Test badly and losing the third”.

Chandimal was caught behind after facing 356 balls and hitting 13 boundaries and a six. “It’s mentally tough”, Misbah said as quoted by ESPNCricinfo.

Marsh and Smith’s partnership is worth 120 and easily surpassed the previous highest Australian partnership of the series, which was 60 between Adam Voges and Mitch Marsh in Kandy.

In between, England has seized control of the series with wins at Old Trafford and Edgbaston.

“I guess we have started to turn it around in this test match. We are a good side when we are on it but there are a few areas we need to improve to make that next step”.

Meanwhile, Australia have enjoyed their best batting session of the series with Sri Lanka as they fight their way back into the third Test in Colombo.

And even the bowlers have not come to the rescue.

“We really stood up in this Test match and believed that we could win and level the series”.