At half past two in the afternoon the fans struck up a conga in the Hollies Stand. Fifteen Fred Flintstones, 11 Oompa Loompas with one Willy Wonka, five cardinals with an inflatable doll, four centurions, three six-foot bottles of tequila, two Dave Bedfords, one Geri Halliwell, one Donald Trump, and a Dolly Parton bringing up the rear. Out in the middle, England’s four fast bowlers were flogging an endless succession of back-of-length balls at the Pakistani middle order, who blocked and ducked and slashed and cut.
It was round about this moment that the Pakistanis could, perhaps, have been forgiven for asking whether English cricket was quite the force we’ve all been led to believe these last few weeks. For the first time in this series, the Pakistan batters stuck to the task. England had to confront the problem of trying to work out what to do when the opposition aren’t gifting them wickets all in a tumble.
The last time they had to bowl even a 51st over in a single innings was at the tail end of the match against New Zealand at Trent Bridge, 75 days ago, when Ben Stokes was still captain. Ollie Robinson hasn’t had to bowl as many as the 21 overs he delivered in this innings since Sussex played Leicestershire in May. This is the era of quick cricket.
Only the optimists buy advance tickets for the fourth day’s play these days. There have been seven two-day Tests in the last decade. There were only six in the entirety of the 20th century.
Ten of the 20 shortest Tests that had a winner have been played in the last five years, five of them in the last 12 months. Old batters blame young batters, young batters blame groundstaff, groundstaff blame administrators, fast bowlers ask why they don’t get the credit, and spin bowlers whether they’ll get a bowl at all. In a match that moves at that sort of speed you can get away without picking a spinner.
But it still feels a little like going out for a long autumn walk without an umbrella: you’re fine all the way up to the point when you find you’re very much not. England, of course, have equipped themselves with Dan Lawrence, who has taken nine wickets at 71 runs each for Surrey in the championship this year, and whose bowling is habitually described as being better than it looks. It could hardly be worse, given that he runs up like a man who’s trodden barefoot on his kids’ Lego set in the black of the night.
Extract — continue reading at the source.
