(ESPNCRICINFO) – There’s been plenty gloom already in England’s Test summer, and so it was fitting, on a rain-delayed second day at Headingley, that their batters’ attempts to bring their own glimmers of sunshine ended in mild anticlimax across the board, and that it was an otherwise up-against-it Pakistani, the left-arm spinner Ali Usman, who was the happiest performer by the close.
Harry Brook top-scored with 91 from 93 balls – an innings, despite its appearance on the scorecard, as measured as any he’s produced of late. Ultimately, however, it culminated in his second failed bid for a home-ground hundred in consecutive Headingley Tests, following his 99 against India last summer. Instead, Usman skidded an arm-ball through his defences, en route to figures of 5 for 92, his maiden Test five-for – and remarkably the first by a visiting spinner since Ashley Mallett in the 1972 Ashes.
Similarly, Brook’s fellow Yorkshireman Joe Root – with his England shirt No.66 – marked his 66th Test as England captain with an innings of 66 that looked, until the moment it ended, as though it was set to culminate in Test century No. 42. Instead, he had to settle for a share of Sachin Tendulkar’s record of 68 scores between 50 and 99 – a fittingly imperfect milestone for a flawed day’s cricket.
At the opposite end of the experience spectrum, the newer recruits of the post-Ben Stokes line-up, Jordan Cox and Dan Lawrence, adhered to the template with scores of 73 and 51 – excellent efforts in their own right but each tinged with regret at opportunities squandered. Both fell to Usman, Lawrence to a wild top-edged slog-sweep that was England’s most attacking dismissal of the day. And after breaching Brook’s defences, Usman followed up with two more in two balls late on to claw back some respectability for his team.
By the close of a 57-over day, however, England had still eased along to 366 for 8, a lead of 195. With the floodlights in operation throughout, they progressed at a run-rate of 4.46 that in no way paled compared to the hyperdrive antics of the ancien régime, although this time they owed their fast pace more to Pakistan’s wayward seamers than to any overt efforts to push the agenda. Four-balls were two-a-penny, and lives were in plentiful supply too – most culpably an early let-off for Brook, who had made just 1 when he flinched a regulation chance to the Pakistan captain, Salman Agha, at second slip, who bloodied his finger in the process.
By the time that opportunity had gone begging, so too had Pakistan’s realistic hopes of staying in the contest. A wicket at that moment would have capped a collapse of 3 for 7 in 14 balls, and left England tottering at 205 for 5, with Cox and Root having already fallen in consecutive overs after a third-wicket stand of 150. Instead, the let-off was perhaps the jolt that Brook needed to knuckle down and extend an extraordinary record against Pakistan that had already gleaned four centuries (including a triple) in six previous away Tests.
Certainly, the mania of Brook’s recent Test displays was very much on the back-burner – he achieved haste without speed, as he reached a 55-ball fifty with no inside-out drives over the covers or preemptive scoop shots, such as the one that had left New Zealand’s fielders so gobsmacked during their series clincher at Trent Bridge in June.
