Stumps:
Alastair Cook finally fell and spin finally got a wicket in this match as England closed the fourth day of the opening Test at the Sheikh Zayed Cricket Stadium on 569 for eight.
They have a lead now of 46 and if any side can win this Test, it is them. That, however, would be a minor miracle, given the nature of the surface. Only at the very end of the day, once Cook was gone, did the surface start kicking up a little dust. It still looks like it may be too late to save this.
Cook and Ben Stokes were responsible for taking England past Pakistan’s first innings 523. Stokes, after his early innings troubles from Wahab Riaz, settled into play his most authoritative innings of the tour.
He used his feet against the spin, lofting over extra cover, and swept forcefully as well. It was a Cook sweep – a trademark shot through the innings – off Zulfiqar Babar that took England past Pakistan.
They began building up a useful little lead, Stokes pushing for runs, Cook carrying on as normal. Stokes reached an encouraging and aggressive fifty, before Shoaib Malik bowled him – remarkably that was the first wicket for spin in 170 overs of it in the game.
Six overs later Cook fell, top-edging a sweep to short fine leg. It was probably the first mishit sweep he played all innings, one that stretched to four minutes short of 14 hours. It is the third-longest innings played in Test cricket.
Jos Buttler chipped in with a few boundaries before he became Babar’s first wicket, in his 69th over. It is unlikely to make any difference to how this Test ends.
Tea:
Alastair Cook is still with us as, unfortunately, is this Test. Cook batted through yet another desultory session of cricket at the Sheikh Zayed stadium to take England to 468 for five at tea. He has now seen off two new balls and is into the third. The chances of him surviving this are high as well.
Little of note happened through the session until very late, when Wahab Riaz decided that the best way to deal with this pitch was to not use it at all.
With a battered old ball in hand, Wahab summoned the high pace he has been bowling at through the Test and with it some pinpoint, dipping and sharp reverse swing.
Johnny Bairstow fell leg-before to one and Ben Stokes was put through a most rigorous examination, somehow surviving a series of yorkers aimed squarely at his toes. So good was it that it even rattled Cook, who had been at the crease for nearly 12 hours. It was, in the context of this match, a Herculean little spell and it has been a Herculean effort from him in the Test.
Earlier in the session Joe Root fell for an accomplished and inevitable 85. Unlike Ian Bell yesterday and Root today, Cook is not a man who gives up his wicket, easily or at all.
He has been content to bat in Root’s slipstream today; in the afternoon session he added only 33 runs to his total. In all England added only 68. It was exactly as bland as those numbers suggest.
Lunch:
The opening Test at the Sheikh Zayed stadium headed slowly but surely towards a draw, a result that seemed ordained almost since England began batting.
On the fourth morning, Alastair Cook did what Alastair Cook has been doing all his life: he endured. For company he had the sprightly Joe Root who, from the moment he arrived late yesterday, has looked certain to score a hundred.
He ended the session on 76 and Cook on 204 – his third Test double hundred. England are 400 for three – but these numbers feel irrelevant in the larger picture of a Test playing itself out to no purpose.
Cook’s vigil – he has now been at the crease for nearly 11 hours – has not been flawless. He was dropped in the deep yesterday and then off an inside edge by Sarfraz Ahmed in the morning’s fourth over.
Beyond that, however, he never looked like getting out. He brought up the double with a clipped two to square leg, in ten and a half hours. He could bat twenty more.
Root was more enterprising, as befits a batsman of his quality. He survived one strong leg-before appeal against Imran Khan but was not challenged thereafter.
He played Zulfiqar Babar especially well, and almost out of boredom it seems, reverse-swept Shoaib Malik to bring up a 12th Test 50. The shot of the day – and maybe the Test – was a ramp over slips off Wahab Riaz.
Riaz was Pakistan’s best bowler, untiring and quick, but unable to dislodge either batsman. He reverse swung the ball late in the session but it was fairly gentle. The end cannot come quick enough.
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