Key events
Fifty for Joe Root
33rd over: England 171-2 ( Root 50, Duckett 42) Ooof, Duckett edges Naseem straight into the hands of first slip, or rather where first slip would have been, had he been a few inches to the right. Babar doesn’t look too impressed. And with an inside edge, Root reaches 65th Test match fifty (off 76 balls) and they take DRINKS.
32nd over: England 163-2 ( Root 49, Duckett 35) Salman is moved in to replace Abrar, and Root immediately reverse-sweeps him for three. That’s the lot for the over though.
“England really seem to need to play themselves in to the conditions, and despite Pakistan’s huge score (for which many congrats to them), it looks like they will be able to do so today if they’re sensible. And then the match will be well set up, and likewise the series. And we all win!” Sensible Andrew Benton? I think they’d bristle about that.
31st over: England 159-2 ( Root 46, Duckett 34) Oh that’s gorgeous from Root, a kiss of a cover drive that skims along to the boundary. Naseem looks nonplussed.
Hello Stephen Brown! “Can’t sleep so I’m very grateful to have you coverage to read. Although I need to do it under the covers so the light doesn’t disturb the Mrs.
“While I find the absolute road this pitch can appear infuriating, perhaps it will serve to remind those who occasionally advocate for four day Tests, that in some places we really do have to give the game space to breathe.”
30th over: England 154-2 ( Root 41, Duckett 34) Duckett fires three boundaries off four balls from Abrar, hit with the brutal efficiency of the stocks. The second one flew slightly riskily over mid-on – but Duckett has now powered 28 from 16 balls off poor Abrar.
29th over: England 142-2 ( Root 41, Duckett 22) Naseem with his first over of the day, his eighth of the innings. Duckett is watchful, and just one run from it. In the crowd, three young girls eat some chips.
28th over: England 141-2 ( Root 41, Duckett 21) A handful of singles off Abrar.
“Hi Tanya. Just getting home from Yard Act’s debut Montreal show. It’s 1am here. Very much hoping to stay awake to see / read Joe Root take the record.
“Yard Act were very good by the way. Hopefully their fellow Yorkshiremen can be just as impressive with willow in hand.”
Ashamed to say I’ve never heard of Yard Act, but the Guardian review from earlier this year says they “boarded the last train out of post-punksville.”
27th over: England 136-2 ( Root 40, Duckett 17) Root’s turn to throw himself at a short one from Shaheen which bounces safely just before the rope. It looks relentlessly hot out there, the few spectators who are around, firmly rooted in the shade.
26th over: England 126-2 ( Root 34, Duckett 13) Duckett gets his eye in with an ugly but effective slog sweep for four, and then dispatches a long hop from Abar through the covers for four more.
25th over: England 114-2 ( Root 34, Duckett 0) Crawley will be kicking himself, he looked magnificently in form and Pakistan slightly bewildered as to what to do with him. Anyway, he’s gone and Ben Duckett strides in.
WICKET! Crawley c Jamal b Shaheen 78 (England 113-2)
From nowhere! Crawley picks up an innocuous ball from Shaheen and flicks it to midwicket where Jamal holds on at the second attempt. Crawley squeezes his eyes in disbelief.
24th over: England 113-1 (Crawley 78, Root 34) Just a single from Abrar’s second over.
23rd over: England 112-1 (Crawley 77, Root 34) Crawley speeding towards three figures here, four squeezed wide of slip.
“Given the clear lack of interest in this from a Pakistani spectator perspective and with the prevalence of white ball cricket, it seems slightly silly that they have prepared such a flat wicket,”writes Thomas Whitaker. “Given the modern playing style and the need to engage audiences, surely a more bowler friendly wicket would make sense??” I don’t think they wanted to risk their slightly fragile batting line up with anything more testing – but would love to hear opinions from any locals up and reading.
22nd over: England 107-1 (Crawley 72, Root 34) Spin from Abrar Ahmed, in nice pair of glasses. England pinch six from the over, plus a no-ball.
“Awake… and staring into the abyss!!” Hello there Arnab Banarjee.
“… but sometimes try out as an Extra to get away from the day job, and off for a fitting this morning somewhere near Old Street in London! Then back for some Test and Wotld T20 with Harman’s team also staring into the abyss!”
Sounds intriguing!
21st over: England 100-1 (Crawley 68, Root 32) Shaheen Shah Afridi with the (almost) new ball. A false start to begin as he runs past the stumps without delivering as Crawley pulls away. The first real ball is wide of off stump and barely bounces above ankle level. Then Crawley stretches those long levers and leans into a peachy cover drive for four.
The players are out….let’s go!
Joe Root needs 38 more runs to overtake Alastair Cook as the highest scoring Englishman in Tests, a few more to overtake Sachin Tendulkar.
With ten minutes to go before we start, time for me to make a quick cup of tea. Do send me a message if you’re awake and staring into the blackness, on tanya.aldred.freelance@guardian.co.uk. The pitch, says Athers, is still full of runs.
Simon Burnton
The sightscreens are a curious feature of this ground. There are big screens at each end that show a series of ads for sponsors, but the whitest white they can muster isn’t very white, so for them to function as sightscreens whenever the bowler is running in from their end a sheet is pulled over them using an ingenious pulley system which requires four people at each end – three to pull the pulleys and another to spot when it’s time to pull, plus a fifth to drape more sheets over the boundary hoardings. Seems an extraordinarily work-intensive solution, but it works
Duckett is fit
Simon Burnton
“I can tell you that Ben Duckett is playing Pig, the team’s morning keepy-uppy game, and has no sign of strapping on his left hand, so that’s positive, right? And official word is dribbling through now – he’s good to go.”
And good news from our man on the ground Simon Burnton…
Some pretty skies from Multan last night:
It is currently 29 degrees in Multan, feeling more like 31 degrees, and the air quality is “unhealthy”: 170 US AQI – or 16 times the reccommmended WHO level.
Preamble
Good morning! It’s hot, it’s dry and it’s day three in Multan, where Pakistan piled up 556 to a largely empty stadium, England sweated, dropped a couple of catches, Chris Woakes’ big boot caught on the boundary rope and Ben Duckett dislocated his thumb.
Salman Agha’s hundred from No. 8 frustrated England, but not as much as Duckett’s dodgy digit, which left Ollie Pope to open with sub-optimal results. Crawley and Root though smoothed the troubled waters with an unbroken stand of 92 at a fair lick.
So now we get to see whether the pitch stays as flat and crushingly unfriendly for bowlers as it was for the first two days, or whether the cracks have yawned and stretched to add a little spice . Play starts at 6amBST, do keep us company.
