England may have dragged themselves from the field at the end of day two 510 runs behind, but they also ended it declaring their absolute belief that this is still a game they can win.
Under Ben Stokes’s captaincy England have won all three matches when their opposition has scored 500 or more runs in an innings – something that had happened only six times in the previous 145 years – and Jeetan Patel, the team’s assistant coach, insisted the feeling in the dressing room is “100%” that this is a daunting but potentially also a winning position – and that nobody was so much as contemplating a draw.
