Speed demon Mark Wood made his long awaited England return and immediately turned up the heat all the way to 97 on the Pakistani batsmen.
That is 97 miles per hour, too hot to handle for most batters as they try to react in the blink of an eye, only to find that they are still too late on the ball. Wood’s extreme pace gave England the weapon they had been badly missing the night before when they failed to take a single wicket.
This time Wood grabbed three of his own as England triumphed by 63 runs, comfortably defending their whopping total of 221-3 to take a 2-1 lead in the seven match series. It was 22 more runs than they made in the second match courtesy of a brilliant innings of 81 not out from Harry Brook that would have claimed all the headlines until Wood charged into the game.
"It was very nice to get out there and put in a match-winning performance," said Brook. "It was about having a solid game plan and sticking to it."
While Brook’s innings was special and will go some way towards pushing his case for a starting spot in the World Cup side in Australia, Wood’s impact was seismic and came at just the right time ahead of that tournament.
Skipper Moeen Ali added: "That really was quick, serious pace. We need him firing like that at the World Cup."
The 32-year-old has not played a game of cricket all summer due to an elbow injury that required two bouts of surgery following his last exertion on the tour to the Caribbean in March. Instead the target has been the World Cup, and as long as there is no adverse reaction, Wood appears to have timed his run to perfection.
"I am tired!" Said Wood. "I've not played since March and the intensity of international cricket means it is tiring.
"The body feels ok. I've done a lot of gym work but nothing beats playing a game. You tend to be fresh after seven months out! I've got to back it up now. I don't want to go too hard now, the adrenaline was flying but I need to peak for the World Cup."
Fresh from his not out ton a day earlier Babar Azam was given a jolt by a rapid Wood bouncer, and the next ball he could only flash it down to third man for Reece Topley to catch. Haider Ali fell in his next over with Mohammed Rizwan sandwiched in between as the impressive Topley’s own victim on his return to the side.
There was a further change to the England lineup with Will Jacks making his international debut and shining at the top of the order with 40 after being presented with his cap by Surrey team-mate Sam Curran.
Jacks said: “It is a moment I’ve worked very hard for and dreamt of my whole life really so it was pretty amazing to get that cap and what a place to make my debut, I’m buzzing.”
Once he was the third man out it cleared the way for Brook to join Ben Duckett and set about the Pakistani bowling with ruthless quality. The pair added an unbroken 139 to set a new record for the fourth wicket, beating Eoin Morgan and Kevin Pietersen’s mark of 112 and there is more than a hint of the latter’s ability in Brook.
