For the best part of two days England toiled in the field, hours of perspiration and very occasional inspiration in which Pakistan accumulated a score that many opponents – though perhaps not these, who beyond their general proclivity to positivity have won the last two games in which they had conceded more than 500 – would find completely daunting. England kept calm, they kept trying, pushing, working, making occasional inroads but very few mistakes. And then, in the space of just a few minutes, that all changed.
It started with the dismissal of Shaheen Shah Afridi, Pakistan’s ninth wicket to fall, with their score on 549. In the next over Salman Agha, having just become his team’s third centurion, advanced to Joe Root, swung, missed and turned to see Jamie Smith inexplicably fumble the most straightforward stumping chance. In the over after that Abrar Ahmed top‑edged to midwicket, where Gus Atkinson craned his neck to track the ball’s looping trajectory, set his hands, and then somehow allowed the ball to plop through them.
