Marcus Trescothick described Pakistan’s late-innings onslaught as a “perfect storm”, after the 21-year-old debutant Razaullah and the 36-year-old Mohammad Abbas combined to score 121 off 123 balls and force a fraying England to come in on the fourth day to chase a target of 130.
The interim coach refused to characterise England’s frequently puzzling efforts in the field as embarrassing as Razaullah plundered nine sixes and four fours on his way to a score of 81, and Abbas two sixes – as many as he had scored in 46 career Test innings before the start of this series – in his 42, insisting: “You’ve got to give a bit more credit to them [rather] than trying to target everything that we’ve tried to do.”
