Key events
WICKET! England 229-5 (Brook run out 75)
Harry Brook dies by the quick single. He has run so well in this innings but he tried to steal a single to midwicket and was well short when Saim Ayub collected Shan Masood’s excellent throw and broke the stumps. Brook flips his bat up in the air in frustration; he knows he has left a Test hundred out there.
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Updated at 06.53 EDT
49th over: England 229-4 (Brook 75, Lawrence 52) Brook edges/steers Ali just short of the slips, with the ball bouncing away for four runs.
Ali appeals for caught behind when Lawrence is beaten by a beauty that nips back off the seam. It was a no-ball, and replays confirm Lawrence missed the ball anyway.
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48th over: England 221-4 (Brook 68, Lawrence 52) And now for something completely different: the occasional spin of Saim Ayub. Lawrence works him for two to reach a terrific counter-attacking fifty, made from only 47 balls. Tougher tests await, particularly against South Africa’s bloodthirsty pace attack, but Lawrence has made an excellent return to Test cricket. It could get a whole lot better in the next couple of hours: he has a great opportunity to make his first Test hundred.
England have scored 65 runs in nine overs this morning.
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47th over: England 214-4 (Brook 64, Lawrence 49) This has been a fascinating innings from Brook, with very few big shots by his standards. His running between the wickets has been so good that, even though he has hit only five boundaries in 89 balls, he still has a strike rate of 72.
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Updated at 06.41 EDT
46th over: England 212-4 (Brook 63, Lawrence 48) Mohammad Ali replaces Razaullah, who bowled pretty well yet conceded 29 from his three overs. Lawrence, who is one hit away from another fifty, has an almighty wipe at fresh air. He bunts the last ball for a single to keep strike.
“England looking to make quick runs before a lunchtime declaration setting Pakistan 240 or so in two sessions?” writes Gary Naylor. “Sounds like a plan. Hang on…”
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Dog stops play at Grace Road
Oh yes.
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Updated at 06.38 EDT
45th over: England 210-4 (Brook 63, Lawrence 47) Lawrence dumps Abbas through midwicket for his seventh boundary of the morning. Seven fours in the first half-hour!
Make that eight – he has just timed Abbas majestically through point. England, Lawrence in particular, have been so good this morning. Pakistan haven’t bowled badly but England are putting them under so much pressure – both through boundaries and hyper-aggressive running between the wickets.
I know it’s a dirty word nowadays, but England’s performance this morning has been the platonic ideal of Bazball.
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44th over: England 201-4 (Brook 63, Lawrence 39) Dan Lawrence is flying. He pulls Razaullah for four, then slices another boundary over the head of backward point. That brings up the fifty partnership in just 58 balls. And Lawrence has scored 34 from 21 this morning.
“What a nice touch that Sarah Taylor is helping the Pakistan wicketkeeper out!” writes John Stedman. “Surely it’s in everybody’s best interests that the visitors put in a good performance here.”
I might not say that that in earshot of Dover’s finest. But yes, the sharing of expertise has always been one of cricket’s more endearing features – Shane Warne with young legspinners, Rahul Dravid and Michael Vaughan at The Oval in 2002, the wobble-seam brotherhood and so on.
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43rd over: England 188-4 (Brook 61, Lawrence 28) Lawrence hits two three in Abbas’s over to continue England’s superb start: they’ve scored 32 runs in four overs.
“Brook and Lawrence have been England’s most successful pairing this summer, by average (min. two partnerships),” writes Tim de Lisle, who will be on duty later. “And look who’s bottom of the table!”
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42nd over: England 181-4 (Brook 60, Lawrence 22) Razaullah digs in a short ball to Lawrence, who gloves a pull down the leg side for four. Ghori dived to his left but needed a telescopic arm to reach it. Brook then squirts his first boundary of the day past gully.
Some excellent running makes it 12 from the over; Razaullah didn’t do a lot wrong either.
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41st over: England 169-4 (Brook 53, Lawrence 17) Mohammad Abbas starts from the other end with the keeper up to the stumps. Lawrence takes him for consecutive boundaries, a flick through square leg and an edge along the ground. England are off to a flyer.
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Updated at 06.15 EDT
40th over: England 160-4 (Brook 52, Lawrence 9) Razaullah’s first ball of the day is a hot, hot lifter that beats Dan Lawrence. After wearing another lifter on the elbow, Lawrence clips firmly through midwicket for four. Nice shot.
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The sun is shining at Edgbaston and the players are ready to go. It’s Razaullah time.
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“Nothing hurts me more than a non-performing Pakistan team,” says Krishnamoorthy V, who has clearly never had piles. “I still recall with awe the super-talented, all-conquering team of 1992. It is true they have been falling steadily but one would exoect a correction and reversal of fortune/form from such a cricket talent nation. West Indies and Pakistan shall forever remain a mystery in their current underperformance. And the bulk of the common malady lies with their respective boards.”
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Jamie Smith suffers thumb injury
Some injury news from the England camp. Jamie Smith took a blow on the thumb yesterday while standing up to the stumps. He’ll bat this morning but Jordan Cox may keep wicket in Pakistan’s second innings.
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‘Wicketkeeping is an art, and art is universal’
Sarah Taylor, England’s fielding coach, is on the outfield giving a tutorial to Pakistan’s debutant keeper Ghazi Ghori. Arthur Mailey would surely approve.
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Ali Martin’s weather report is in
double quotation markWeather fine, pitch good, 16 wickets incoming.
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England’s four-man seam attack once again demonstrated its collective threat in bundling Pakistan out for 133 at Edgbaston. Josh Tongue highlighted the work the quartet have done together beyond matchdays by experimenting with a wobble seam delivery that he has honed with assistance from Ollie Robinson – work that brought immediate reward.
“I’ve spoken to Robbo quite a bit about it,” said Tongue, who took four wickets, with the other six equally shared between Robinson and Jofra Archer. “Obviously he’s unbelievable at that and he’s showed that throughout the series. So I’ve been speaking to him quite a bit during the last couple of Tests and I tried a couple of things in training the other day. That was the first time I’d bowled it in the game and it got me a wicket, so I’ll be using it again. I want to get more skills under my belt.”
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Day one report
In jettisoning seven players from their squad, parachuting seven more in, and then making four changes to their XI, Pakistan went into this third Test against England pretty much throwing mud at the wall in the hope that some of it might stick.
Some did, in fairness, with the newcomer Razaullah dismissing Joe Root after tea on the opening day with just his fourth delivery in Test cricket. Propelling the ball from a slingy, chest-on action that has a smidgeon of Waqar Younis in his pomp – and hitting 92mph on the speed gun – the 21-year-old’s figures of two for 42 offered a glimmer of cheer for Pakistan’s otherwise downbeat supporters.
Sadly their team’s broader slide continued and by stumps – even with just 73 overs bowled despite a mere five-minute rain break – England’s upper hand in a series they have already secured at 2-0 up remained. Having dismissed the tourists for 133 in just shy of 34 overs after winning a helpful toss, Root’s men closed on 156 for four and will go into day two leading by 23 runs.
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Preamble
How do you do? Enough of the pleasantries, can we please talk about Razaullah? At this stage he could be the new Waqar Younis or the new Mohammad Zahid, so we shouldn’t get carried aw- ah, sod that. At the end of a thoroughly dispiriting series, Razaullah’s fervent, uncomplicated fast bowling – full, straight, 90mph; mind the bloody pads, lads – was a welcome reminder that Pakistan cricket will always touch the parts other nations can’t reach.
In the opulent history of irresistible Pakistan fast bowling, figures of 9-0-42-2 don’t amount to much, but it was the first bit of haal we’ve seen all series. England fans needed it; Pakistan fans needed it; Pakistan cricket really needed it.
What Pakistan need this morning is for Razaullah and his more forensic companion, Mohammad Abbas, to keep the match alive by taking a shortcut through England’s middle- and lower-order.
England will resume on 156 for 4, a lead of 23, with Harry Brook well set on 52 not out. It’s a measure of how good Brook is, and how much better he might become, that he played a responsible, almost subdued innings and still scored at a strike rate of 68. Brook hasn’t made a Test century since he panelled an astonishing and ultimately infuriating 111 against India at the Oval 14 months ago; he’ll be desperate to right that wrong today.
If Brook goes early, it’s not beyond the realms that this will be the last day of the series. The Edgbaston pitch looked pretty good yesterday, even though 14 wickets fell, so the nature of the day’s play may be shaped by the overhead conditions. I’ve asked our cricket correspondent Ali Martin for a comprehensive weather update.
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Updated at 05.06 EDT
