Welcome to the house of Saud. England crossed the threshold on Friday hoping to underline a slender advantage and they departed on the precipice of an emphatic defeat after the game was in almost every way transformed by Saud Shakeel. Where there was chaos he brought calm, when his team were struggling he brought success, and his spectacularly unspectacular century pushed England into a position they seem profoundly unsuited to escaping.
Shakeel’s 134, forged in large part across late-innings partnerships with England’s spin-bowling nemeses, Noman Ali and Sajid Khan, helped Pakistan to a first-innings total of 344 and a lead of 77. Left with nine overs to face at the end of the day, by stumps the tourists had stumbled to 24 for three, still 53 behind, with Noman and Sajid their undoing once again.
The 29-year-old Shakeel batted for most of the day, in the process providing a blueprint for success on this surface. England found it impossible to replicate against Sajid, Noman and a new ball. Ben Duckett and Zak Crawley were both trapped lbw with England’s score on 15, the former after a successful review – Sharfuddoula Saikat mystifyingly refusing to submit to Pakistan’s theatrical, Sajid-conducted chorus-line of an appeal – and the latter after an unsuccessful and, in the circumstances, fairly desperate one.
Noman picked up a second wicket in the day’s penultimate over, the profoundly out-of-sorts Ollie Pope edging to slip having scored just one. At the start of the day, England seemed on the right path, by its end they looked a right mess.
Shakeel had already proved himself an excellent player of spin – before this innings he averaged 87.8 in Tests against slow bowling, and 100 against off-spin, compared with 33.6 against seam and 53 overall – and appears to be blessed with infinite patience.
Conditions which others found impossible to handle were for him purest catnip. Most of his runs were gathered with singles manoeuvred gently into gaps, caressed with soft hands off the front foot.
He did offer one chance of sorts when he was on 26, edging Shoaib Bashir to the wicketkeeper, though he made enough contact to divert the ball beyond the reach of Jamie Smith’s gloves, and that was as close as he came to dismissal until, 86 runs and one ball shy of 59 overs later, he survived a review for lbw.
Shakeel shared a partnership of 53 runs with Shan Masood, spanning the first and second days, followed by a sprightly stand of 52 off 85 balls with Mohammad Rizwan. These were inconveniences for England, but after Rehan Ahmed took three quick wickets shortly before lunch they seemed destined to be little more than that. From 151 for four, Pakistan had slipped to 177 for seven, still 90 behind, when Noman came out at No 9.
The next session, abbreviated by half an hour as part of the reorganisation required to provide an hour-long break for Friday prayers, was the first in the game that was completely dominated by the bat.
Noman’s Test history is not exactly littered with impressive scores, but he had given a strong hint of his ability to put together handy late-innings partnerships in Multan last week, when in Pakistan’s first innings he and Aamer Jamal scored 49 for the ninth wicket. Here he and Shakeel added 88 and turned the game on its head.
One thing England never really discovered during their opening innings was whether their top order would find it easier to thrive against a tired, ageing ball. That was not a question Pakistan left unanswered, and as the bowlers struggled increasingly to find sharp turn or unpredictable bounce, England switched their focus from the pursuit of wickets to protection of their first-innings advantage – which was when their opponents really prospered.
In their preoccupation with stopping boundaries, they made it easy to score singles, leaving plenty of inviting gaps just a gentle nudge away. Noman and Shakeel proved to be impeccable gentle nudgers.
Noman scored a few boundaries, on one occasion launching Rehan over long-on for six, but the great majority of their runs involved actual running. When Shakeel hit Bashir through midwicket for four in the 87th over, soon after the same bowler, by then working with a new ball, had finally disposed of Noman, it was his first boundary for 108 deliveries and the start of a new phase in his innings.
Noman fell in the last over before tea, which Pakistan reached with two wickets in hand and with the scores level. That brought out Sajid Khan, who for all his qualities is not a natural nudger. Ever the showman, the 31-year-old is much more the bludgeoning type, and he yahooed his ninth ball over midwicket for six to kickstart a remarkably anomalous period during which 43 runs were scored off three overs and England’s spirit appeared to be broken. Not long earlier, Harry Brook had actually performed a cartwheel as he returned to the field after a short visit to the dressing room, but suddenly this was a team of drooping shoulders and hanging heads.
Shakeel miscued Gus Atkinson to short midwicket eventually and Zahid Mahmood fell to his first ball. But the concession of painful late-innings runs has been a hallmark of England’s series, and it may be decided before they break the habit.
Of Pakistan’s eight highest partnerships in this series, one has been for the seventh wicket, one for the eighth and three now for the ninth, and a team renowned for their flimsy batting have become resolute. Now it is England who need to turn things around.
