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Moments after Ollie Robinson, immovable from the crest of his wave, had Saim Ayub caught in the slips by Harry Brook from the first ball of Pakistan’s second innings, a PA announcement warned Edgbaston stewards of a ‘Code Red’.
It had apparently been triggered by a fire alarm and, for a few seconds, the crowd fell eerily silent. But they burst into life three balls later when Robinson had Abdullah Shafique poking low to Joe Root at first slip, leaving the tourists nought for two and facing a Code Red situation of their own.
The fire alarm proved false, and Pakistan saved at least a little face by reaching 52 for two before rain ended play shortly after 5pm.
But as Root’s team closed in on a 3–0 whitewash in gloomy Birmingham, it was possible to feel two emotions at the same time: delight for England, who batted with panache and bowled with precision, and despair for Pakistan, a once great side reduced to chaos and cluelessness by the machinations of their board and the misery of their players.
There was uproar in Karachi and Lahore when, only two days into this series, their side were described as the worst their country had sent to these shores for 50 years. Those voices have fallen silent now, with England – in disarray themselves not long ago – largely doing as they pleased on the second day of this third and final Test.
Resuming on 156 for four, they thrashed 297 in 60 overs before being dismissed for 453, at which point Robinson took his series haul to 21 wickets at an average of 6.66 with the kind of precision that turns metronomes green with envy. It has all been closer to bloodsport than sport.
Ollie Robinson shone again as England closed in on a series whitewash over Pakistan
It was another day of despair for Pakistan as their miserable tour of England nears an end
We should be careful what we wish for, of course. Until recently, the idea of England winning every Test of a series would have been greeted with a snort of derision. But while they deserve credit for keeping their foot on Pakistan’s throat, the one-sidedness of the cricket has raised more questions about a format that rarely stops fretting over its future.
It’s no good grumbling about the unfettered growth of the T20 franchise circuit when Test cricket is properly contested by only a handful of nations. And it’s no good wondering why this inequality has been allowed to arise when the bigger nations shrug their shoulders at the ICC’s lopsided financial model, and the ICC themselves turn a blind eye to the game’s growing politicisation.
As this tour has confirmed, Pakistan are on the wrong side of each of these debates, with the chairman of their cricket board, Mohsin Naqvi, doubling up as the country’s interior minister, and presiding over the farcical culling of almost half their squad between Lord’s and Edgbaston.
It all meant the day proceeded along predictable lines, with Harry Brook and Dan Lawrence sniffing out any prospect of a Pakistani comeback by taking 73 from the morning’s first 10 overs while barely breaking sweat.
But if there has been one criticism of England, it has been the failure of their batsmen to convert starts into something more meaningful, and here again they promised more than they delivered.
Brook had struck the perfect tempo in moving to 75 in three and a quarter hours when he pushed an off-break from Ayub towards midwicket and set off for a single even as Shan Masood swooped on the ball, before running him out comfortably at the non-striker’s end.
Might Lawrence reach three figures instead? Moments before lunch, he contrived to chop a widish delivery from Mohammad Imran on to his stumps, and walked off in anguish for 65. Three half-centuries in four innings since his recall have been a good return, but the battle for top-six places is cranking up. This was an opportunity missed.
Jamie Smith, batting with a dislocated left index finger sustained in the field on the first day, played some meaty strokes for his third sixty in five innings, only to provide a simple return catch off a leading edge to Razaullah.
And while Robinson hit out for his second Test fifty, his dismissal left England with 21 half-centuries from six games this summer, and a lone hundred, by Ben Duckett against New Zealand at Trent Bridge.
Unless one of Pakistan’s batsmen can go big tomorrow, this will be the first Test series in England of three matches or more not to feature an individual century since the 1888 Ashes.
Harry Brook and Dan Lawrence were two of five England batsmen to pass 50 in their innings
This Pakistan side are one of the worst touring teams to ever come to here for a Test series
Not that any of this troubled Robinson as he performed his now customary demolition of Pakistan’s top order.
Ayub’s most recent cricket had been for Jamaica Kingsmen in the Caribbean Premier League, which most sensible set-ups might think was no kind of preparation for red-ball cricket under grey English skies. Sure enough, he completed a pair by wafting hopelessly at his first ball.
Cox, keeping in place of the injured Smith, now came up to the stumps for Shafique, who poked at Robinson as if in a trance. Since making 61 at Headingley, Shafique has managed 23 in five innings, and been dismissed in five of his six by Robinson.
Duckett put down a slip catch for the third time in the game when Shan Masood flashed at the luckless Gus Atkinson, while Jofra Archer lacked his usual menace. But such is the gulf between the sides that England can afford these blemishes and still win this game at a canter.
