England vs Pakistan: Alastair Cook and Alex Hales drag hosts back into third Test on day three

Positive: Alastair Cook and Alex Hales helped England get back on track
PAUL ELLIS/AFP/Getty Images
Tom Collomosse5 August 2016

Alastair Cook and Alex Hales dragged England back into an absorbing Test against Pakistan after the tourists looked to have taken charge at Edgbaston.

Trailing by 103 runs after the first innings, England were in a hole. No team has ever won a Test here after batting first and conceding a lead of more than 100.

Yet England’s opening pair posted their first century stand to take their team past Pakistan’s total with all 10 wickets still intact. Hales sent them ahead with a back-foot punch through extra-cover as the tiring Sohail Khan showed little of the skill that earned him five wickets in the first innings.

Even though history is against them, England will still feel they are well in contention in this match, with all three results still possible and two days remaining. At the close, they were 120 without loss – a lead of 17 – with Cook unbeaten on 64 and Hales 50 not out. He reached the milestone with a single from the last ball of the day.

The four-match Investec Series stands at 1-1, with the rest of this game plus the fourth Test, starting at The Kia Oval next Thursday, to decide the outcome.

Cook had endured a frustrating week in Birmingham, with his batsmen wasteful and his bowlers unable to make up for those errors.

The leader of his attack, Jimmy Anderson, was prevented from bowling again during the embers of the Pakistan innings after he received a third warning for running on the pitch.

Cook himself dropped a simple chance at first slip that would have brought the fragile Steven Finn the confidence of a wicket.

Yet despite these challenges, nobody on either side – with the possible exception of Joe Root – is batting better than Cook. The stroke that clinched his 50 was the best of the day.

Mohammad Amir overpitched slightly and Cook, with perfect timing, simply persuaded it back past the bowler for four. Few strokes in cricket indicate the supremacy of batsman over bowler better than a perfectly-executed straight drive.

Will these foundations be enough for England to take an unlikely win? They might just be. Yasir Shah, the leg-spinner who took 10 wickets to win the match at Lord’s, suddenly looks manageable. He took one for 266 in the Second Test at Old Trafford, which England won by 330 runs to level the series, and has claimed only one here.

Though England did not dominate him on the third evening, he failed to trouble them. Apart from one leg-before appeal against Hales on 39, which was found to have pitched outside the leg stump after Pakistan reviewed, Yasir caused little danger. Will he do more damage on day four? If England establish a threatening lead, will the pitch help Moeen Ali?

Pakistan would have been satisfied with their 103-run advantage but now, they are vulnerable. The tourists had resumed 257 for three in the morning and they made steady progress towards and beyond England’s total, though wickets fell regularly.

Stu Forster/Getty Images

Younis Khan was caught behind down the leg side off Chris Woakes for 31. Asad Shafiq fell for an 18-ball duck, bowled through the gate by Stuart Broad.

Misbah-ul-Haq, the captain, made a half-century and added 62 in 15 overs with Sarfraz Ahmed before he was bowled off the inside edge by Anderson for 56. Yasir, who made seven, was run out in bizarre fashion.

Collecting the throw from Woakes, wicketkeeper Jonny Bairstow broke the stumps with his elbow, but Yasir’s dismissal stood as Bairstow was in control of the ball when he did so.

Amir, Sohail and Rahat Ali did not hang around for long, leaving Sarfraz 46 not out. History suggests the 103-run lead will be enough but with the pitch showing no signs of deteriorating, England will believe they can go a long way past Pakistan and apply pressure in the fourth innings.

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