Eng vs Pak 3rd Test - Robinson dominates, Pakistan face three-day defeat

Razaullah bowled his first delivery today at 85mph/137kph. It landed on length and reared up past Dan Lawrence’s right shoulder. Next delivery, he was up to 87mph/140kph, and before the over was out, he had hit 90mph/145kph once more.

Razaullah was worth talking about day one because of what he could do in this Pakistan side. On day two, he’s worth talking about because of what will probably happen instead.

By the end of the day, he had bowl another 13 overs, and conceded at nearly eight runs in each. Even when Pakistan waited around for a declaration as England’s lower order tucked greedily into their dispirited bowlers, it was Razaullah who remained plugged into the attack from one end or the other, eventually finishing with four wickets.

The lines and lengths had all gone, and even the pace had been throttled, gently pulled back from the 90s mph, then the high 80s, until he’d settled around 82-84mph/132-135kph. While, just the day before, Joe Root and Harry Brook eyed him warily, now Jofra Archer, Gus Atkinson and Ollie Robinson combined to smash him for 56 in 39 balls. It was like watching a time lapse video of a Pakistani fast bowler’s career.

This Test is gone, even if a late rain shower shut down the very realistic possibility of England wrapping it up on the second evening. However, on a tour that has seen Pakistan discard players and hand out new caps with profligacy, they might do well to reflect on all the other things they do not want to lose along with this game.

The manner in which some of the players have been treated – or, in some cases, at least reported to have been treated – puts their careers in the balance. The PCB might want to move them on, or, in an age where white-ball cricket offers more financial leeway for less scrutiny, the international red-ball game may suddenly look less appealing. Two weeks ago, Saim Ayub was scoring a hundred in the Caribbean on a lucrative CPL contract. It presumably beats going home with a pair following ducks on Wednesday and Thursday in Birmingham, not to mention the opprobrium expected to come his way from both the fans and his employers.

Pakistan conceded 45 extras in England’s innings, with plenty (18) coming through byes. That does not mean debutant Ghazi Ghori, in for Mohammad Rizwan, who has felt the brunt of the PCB’s anger, was poor. Ghori never shied away from coming up to the stumps when a bowler wanted him too. Pakistan’s waywardness with ball didn’t help, even if some that sneaked through would, on the evidence of the first two Tests, been collected by Rizwan. One day, that could be just as true for Ghori, but it isn’t now, and Pakistan’s best keeper is back home in disgrace.

Ghori and Ayub’s cases – and especially Razaullah’s – demonstrate how it can be just as unfair to select players for a Test as it is to send them home. While Pakistan has a rich history of treating experience as optional for international selection, the expectations thrust upon the arrivals is on quite a different scale.

Ayub came in because the previous opener was effectively accused of cowardice, and told to play his shots. Ghori, meanwhile, is in the team because his predecessor was playing too many shots. Razaullah has featured because Pakistan grew sick of being told they had run out of pace bowlers. This isn’t a gentle dipping of the toes; Pakistan have home Tests against Sri Lanka and New Zealand coming up, if that’s the route they wanted to go down. It’s a shove into the deep end, saddled by weights rather than supported by waders.

As the England tail stretched interminably on, the last over Razaullah bowled neatly bookended the slings and arrows of his fortunes on debut. His first, last night saw Joe Root tetchily poke and prod in an unsuccessful bid for survival. In this one, he banged the first one down back of a length to Archer, a man whose career has demonstrated how complicated the management of extreme pace is, but also the bountiful rewards of getting it right.

Archer tugged it disdainfully round the corner, so Razaullah went even shorter the following delivery. Archer knows what pace can do, but presumably recognises a fading quick when he sees one. He had time to get in a generous bat swing, and heaved it over backward square leg for six. In that first over, hed trapped Root dead in front. Off the final delivery here, he pleaded for an lbw decision that might have missed another set of stumps as it slid aimlessly down leg. As far as Pakistani fast-bowling arcs go, it seemed a grimly apt metaphor.

Source link