Another extraordinary day under Ben Stokes’ bold captaincy

By Nick Hoult in Rawalpindi

Even if England fail to pull off a memorable win, or manage to lose today, they still deserve praise not opprobrium for the way they have pioneered a new way of playing in Pakistan.

For years the way to win in Pakistan was to play the long game. “Patience is the key,” advised Alastair Cook just last week. Not any more. Ben Stokes has no interest in the game’s history or what people outside the dressing room say, but he does want to entertain.

It is hard to think of a more daring, or reckless, personality that has captained England before and because of him and his declaration this match has a thrilling final day in store on a dead pitch. 

“I’m sitting in the dressing room and sometimes I think it is crazy – in a good way, not a negative way,” said Paul Collingwood, the assistant coach. “I know full well I would never come up with some of these ideas that Ben and Baz [Brendon McCullum] come up with. That is great to see, it is going against convention. When it comes off it is genius.”

When it doesn’t? Well, England do not care. “We have not come here to draw,” added Collingwood, after arguably the most unconventional day yet of Stokes’s captaincy encapsulated in a declaration that set Pakistan 344 to win in four sessions.

England batted at 6.7 an over across their two innings, Harry Brook twice threatened to set a new record as England’s fastest century maker, Joe Root felt so emboldened on Sunday he batted left-handed, and Stokes bowled bouncers with the new ball when he had the greatest pitch-it-up seamer in England’s history on the field.

James Anderson just grazed at mid off as Ollie Robinson took one wicket, broke Azhar Ali’s finger, forcing him to retire, before Stokes landed the big one: Babar Azam backing away and inside edging a catch behind. The bouncer ploy, employed to rough up the ball and accelerate reverse swing, was a shock tactic that worked.

When the sun and the players went off, Pakistan were 80 for two with the damage to Azhar unknown, 263 short of their target. Imam Ul Haq and Saud Shakeel put the game in the balance with a lively 55-run stand. Both teams fancy it. 

England need eight wickets for only their third ever Test win in Pakistan and seventh out of eight under Stokes and McCullum. 

Will Jacks’s six wickets in the first innings, eye-rubbingly remarkable when you think he had not taken a first-class wicket until last year, helped wrap up Pakistan first innings with England taking a 149-run lead.

The third-innings declaration set up can be the most boring aspect of Test cricket. Not this time. England rattled through to 264 for seven in 35.5 overs, declaring at tea and dangling a tempter for Pakistan.

A target of 343 in four sessions and a theoretical 130 overs (more likely around 110 given bad light) at an approximate 3.5 an over on a flat pitch took the draw out of the equation. But the only way to win on this surface is to pull the batsmen into a fight. Set too high a target and they block. Pakistan are taking it on and are going at 4.4 already but there is one unquantifiable factor: pressure. 

Ramiz Raja, the chairman of the PCB, summed up life in the furnace of Pakistan cricket the other day when he said there are “220 million people” in Pakistan and “220 million of them think they can do my job better.” Now imagine how the players feel. After scoring 579 in their first innings, to lose would be shameful. 

England’s first task was finishing off Pakistan’s tail which took longer than expected as they added 80 for three. Jacks took all the wickets, Ollie Pope grabbed the first stumping of his career to complete the five fer; his Surrey team-mate becoming the first spinner to manage five or more in his first innings for England since Peter Such in 1993.

Ben Duckett made a hundred in the first innings, a golden duck in the second when he guided a catch to slip in the first over. Pope, tired after 155 overs of keeping, holed out for 15 but Crawley made a cavalier fifty.

He was strangled down the leg side but Root took up the cause in his classy way before deciding to be a bit cheeky. He shadow batted left-handed at the non-striker’s end before adopting it to leggie Zehid Mahmood. It was almost a disaster, his second ball sweep was dropped at square leg (or was it point?). He gave it up and reverted to orthodoxy after that and was soon out for 73 off 69.

It left the stage for Brook. He hits the ball so hard, a result of modelling himself on AB De Villiers when he grew up at Burley in Wharfedale Cricket Club playing with his grandad. 

He smashed three sixes and Gilbert Jessop’s 120-year-old record for the fastest England hundred that he missed by only five balls in the first innings was in sight. On 87 off 64 he was bowled middle stump. Jessop’s record lives on but this team will surely break it soon.

Stokes declared at tea, the gauntlet thrown down. Robinson banged it in and Abdullah Shafique swiped a catch to long leg in the fifth over. Azhar was hit second ball and went off, Babar lasted just five deliveries before departing and along with him went most of the crowd. 

Keaton Jennings dropped Shakeel in the penultimate over of the day at short leg. It could be crucial but regardless of what happens, England have lived up to their word. The rest of the series promises much.