On Wednesday, Test Cricket was put in a bad light under some classic clouds in Manchester. It couldn’t have looked better yesterday. We had a pulsating, swaying, pounding day – England took control in the morning, Pakistan broke up after lunch when Shadab Khan was in turmoil, England fought back when Jofra Archer and Stuart Broad wrapped up the tail. A first inning of 326 was just right: could be a win, could be a loser. And then the coup d’état came. Six overs from Slaughter, England 12 for three, their worst start in an innings home test in 20 years.
Pakistan had spectacularly done three things: opening the eyelash (Shan Masoods 156 was 13 times as many as England’s openers did between them), opening the bowling (speed at one end, guile at the other, intention on both) and some Noise. In an empty room where others have settled for eerie silence, the Pakistanis have found that the role of the crowd can be played by their players. It doesn’t take 20,000 people to fill the air with feelings.
When Ben Stokes was outside and this broad bat blew up, England was in a deep hole and a dilemma. Their first three partnerships hadn’t taken six overs, and there were still 22 to go. What do you do when your opponents know how to quickly destroy an inning? Joe Root stuck to Plan A, stubbornly defended, never looked like himself, and finally fell on a tired shot. Ollie Pope went straight to Plan B, the counterattack, and looked more like Joe Root than Joe Root. In everything he did, Pope purposefully aimed at flair with flair.
He was joined by Jos Buttler, who had saved his test career in the last game to risk it again by dropping Masood before he was 50. Somehow Buttler pushed it all out and started well – positive, Popishly. The two have given England a slim chance of a respectable result if they can make it through the first half hour. But they’re still in a tight corner – so tight it could be Shane Warne’s pants. From the moment Shadab came in, like the outsider in a story, shaking up a sleepy city, this match was a pure drama. May it take a long time.
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