The clock had just ticked past 7pm, there was still half an hour of play left on this soggy second day, and it looked for all money that Harry Brook would end a year-long wait for his 11th Test century with a first at his home ground of Headingley. Brook had agonisingly missed out by one run against India here last summer. And this time, against a ragged Pakistan side that had handed him a life second ball amid another outing to forget, the box was practically begging to be ticked.
With 91 runs to his name, Brook rocked back and went to push the left-arm spin of Ali Usman through vacant midwicket only to swipe at fresh air and hear the ball cannon on to his stumps. Brook came into this match as the world’s No 1-ranked batter but this particular local peak remains elusive. For all that Brook was cursing himself back in the dressing room, and Usman struck twice more before stumps, it was not hugely damaging to England’s position.
At stumps Joe Root’s side had progressed to 366 for eight, and a lead of 195 runs, with victory inside three days not beyond the realms of possibility. Saying as much is dangerous at a ground famous for its turnarounds, likewise against a team with a history of producing the unexpected. But across the 57 overs of play that were possible, as Root (66), Jordan Cox (73), and Dan Lawrence (51) similarly made unconverted half-centuries, it was hard to be upbeat about the tourists.
It was already looking a long way back for Pakistan after that ruinous first day at the hands of Ollie Robinson and Josh Tongue. But with a night’s sleep, and rain halting the match until 2.45pm, they had time to regroup; time to think about what caused their own dismissals before harnessing helpful conditions themselves. Unfortunately a side that came into this series amid low expectations managed to somehow fall short of even these.
Across the two overcast sessions, floodlights at full beam, their quicks failed to match Robinson’s relentless line and length, chances went begging, and their ground fielding was borderline slapstick. Summing it up was Usman trying to stop a boundary with his boot at one stage and kicking it over the rope. Unathletic as this was, at least Usman was trying to cut off the boundary.
At times this seemed beneath Mohammad Abbas and Mohammad Ali, two men who would doubtless expect better off their own bowling. The daft thing was, Pakistan actually had a sniff here. Root and Cox had looked largely untroubled after resuming on 112 for two, a stand of 150 pushing England past parity and into the lead.
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