Pakistan 257; England 207-5
There was a time, not so very long ago, when the thought of the England cricket team reverting to type was nothing less than pejorative. Success was an aberration on the part of the opposition, while failure offered the comfort blanket of familiarity to pessimistic supporters and a ready supply of gags for lazy comedians. Then it all changed.
Throughout the afternoon and into the evening session, as Alastair Cook seemed to be progressing relentlessly towards the 20th century of his Test career and he and Jonathan Trott unobtrusively compiled a second-wicket partnership of 139, England did indeed revert to type in Abu Dhabi, the horrors of Dubai just a bad dream. There was proper diligent patient Test-match batting following a clinical morning coup de grace by the seamers to put paid to the residue of the Pakistan innings. They changed the team, altered the emphasis, but the song remained reassuringly the same.
This is heating up into a good competitive Test, however, as Pakistan, having removed Andrew Strauss cheaply at the start of the innings, made serious inroads into the England innings as the shadows lengthened and regained the upper hand. Trott was eventually bowled for 74, beaten but no way disgraced by a perfect bail trimmer from Abdur Rehman to which he might just have got a touch more forward. Such alarms as there were for him are nothing but water off a ducks back. The routine for the next ball is precisely the same whether he has driven precisely through the covers, flicked off his pads, or squirted down to third man. He was also the beneficiary of Misbah-ul-Haq's quirky use of the umpire decision review system in which he failed to query an lbw turned down when Trott had 22 and which looked plumb, and then blew both his remaining reviews in rapid succession on frivolous appeals.
Eleven overs later, the unthinkable happened. Cook had played quite beautifully, defending straight, picking the length well and waiting to score off the back foot in his habitual areas square of the wicket when the bowling allowed a fraction of width. He hit 10 fours, none more succinct than when he late-cut Ajmal to the third man boundary, the stroke cuffed away like an old village bobby berating an apple-scrumper with a clip round the ear.
Only once, very early in his innings, when first the spin of Mohammad Hafeez appeared, did he try anything untoward, an attempted paddle sweep that missed the bat, might have taken glove or bowled him, but did neither. He never went there again. He had reached 94, though, when Saeed Ajmal, coming to the end of his 25th wicketless over, turned a doosra past his defensive bat and won the lbw.
The two wickets brought the Pakistan crowd to life, the cacophony belying their number when Kevin Pietersen, uncomfortable yet again against the torments of spin, attempted to flick Ajmal through the leg side, only for the subsequent inside edge to ricochet from his front pad to slip. Finally, with what proved to be the last ball of the day, Eoin Morgan, after an utterly clueless innings, was spared the turmoil of a sleepless night worrying about the torment of the next day when he edged Ajmal to slip.
Inside an hour Pakistan had turned the game on its head once more and serious doubts must now exist whether England have the capability to win this match, or indeed avoid defeat. There were contented smiles in the dressing room as Cook and Trott ploughed their familiar furrow, but, as Pakistan made their inroads, so their momentum grew perceptibly and the grins dissipated.
The spin of Ajmal and Rehman, which had seemed so playable before, began to fizz and zip, bite and turn. Both bowlers cranked up their speed, so that use of the feet, a dangerous enterprise anyway when the direction of turn is uncertain, was rendered impossible. One delivery, from Rehman to Ian Bell, rapid, with turn and bounce that lifted Adnan Ajmal from his feet as it hit his gloves, was reminiscent of the sort of thing that Derek Underwood propelled on a drying pitch with the bit between his teeth.
To stay in the match, England need no less than parity on first innings and then must hope for more heroics from the bowlers. For the former they will now depend once more on Matt Prior, one of two England batsmen to distinguish themselves in Dubai, and Bell, who at least survived until the close. But at 207 for five, and with a new ball available immediately should Pakistan so desire, it is a tall order.
That the bowlers can do their job a second time is certainly within expectations. It took Stuart Broad and Jimmy Anderson only a quarter of an hour to polish off the Pakistan innings, with the pitch giving notice that there was uneven bounce for the tall men to exploit. This pitch can help spin and pace alike, and England may not necessarily be a more efficient unit for the presence of Monty Panesar over Steve Finn. It does not look as if the surface will quieten down, however, and that surely will be England's downfall. For a beautiful afternoon, where no wicket fell for the first time in this series, Cook and Trott showed what could be achieved. It may be as good as it gets.