Pakistan vs England 3rd Test 2015

They needed wickets to prevent England getting up towards parity after both sides had batted once, let alone potentially build a first-innings lead.

England looked to be in trouble as Joe Root was dismissed for four shortly after.

Stokes will not bowl again in the match, which will be inconvenient at best for England during Pakistan’s second innings and may alter the course of proceedings.

Bell fell in the second over after the tea break when he gave Shah the charge. I really enjoyed batting with him.

Ben Stokes may yet bat if necessary for England in the third Test against Pakistan, after scans confirmed he has a “collar bone joint injury”.

“He clearly trusts and believes in his game”.

“The two left-armers came in giving it absolutely everything when they had that reverse going, and for me it was about giving them nothing”.

Cook and Bell showed plenty of patience in their 71-run second-wicket partnership as they rebuilt, although the boundary ropes were rarely in danger as running between the wickets became the main way of advancing the score.

Former England skipper Michael Vaughan said: “I’d say he’s going to be a fixture in the Test team now”. “He’s put dip and energy on the ball”. During that time, he’s scored 40 or more on six occasions but never gone on beyond 65.

Sarfraz soon heaved Moeen high into the hands of deep midwicket – and then, without addition an over later, Patel turned another to bowl Wahab Riaz for a duck.

Not only are the numbers poor, but the manner of his dismissal on the second morning was not befitting of a Test opener.

Resuming at 4 without loss, England lost Ali in the seventh over of the day when he miscued an aggressive shot off Shoaib Malik and was caught at slip by Younis Khan for 14.

The left-arm orthodox brought Asad Shafiq forward in defence and found enough turn for Bairstow’s third catch behind the stumps, on his return to the specialist position – having played purely as a batsman in his previous five Tests. He admitted to being “gutted” he had thrown away a third good start on this tour and there was a sense of the changing of the guard as he batted with Taylor. Misbah-ul-Haq set clever fields that attempted to cut off Cook’s run supply – someone on the cut, another on the slog-sweep, someone on the orthodox sweep and so on, but the England captain began to manoeuvre the ball into areas unusual for him.

Bell added: “It was a good last session for us”.

“He’s a smart little cricketer, a busy cricketer and that’s what we saw today: the way he swept, used his feet, ran between the wickets”.

Then, after Hafeez (97no) was initially given out on the field for two but had the caught-behind verdict reversed on DRS, they were powerless to stop Pakistan surging back in front. A lead of 50 or 70 would be good but anything else would be outrageously marvellous.