England v Pakistan, 3rd Test, Day 3 – Azhar Ali’s ton not enough as England enforce follow-on

Azhar Ali’s fighting Test hundred, having been under immense pressure owing to his poor run of form was not remotely enough for Pakistan to avoid the follow on, as Jimmy Anderson clinched his 29^th five-for in Test match Cricket, finishing the day 2 wickets away from the 600-wickets landmark.

Anderson started off the day by nicking Asad Shafiq out, caught by Root at first slip. A rain-break (of course) followed, after which Fawad Alam walked in, and much like his batting stance twin Shivnarine Chanderpaul, tried to dig in, keeping out the seaming and swaying spells from Broad and Anderson early on, in the process scoring his first Test run in 11 years.

Yet another shower, the umpteenth of the series, forced the umpires to announce an early lunch break. After lunch, Woakes and Archer were introduced into the attack for the first time this morning. Archer bowled with a lot of pace to start with, Woakes managed to induce an edge from Fawad Alam, but that did not go to hand.

Fawad knuckled in along with Azhar Ali for 74 balls for his 21, before falling rather cheaply to Dom Bess’ off-break. After setting him up with a straighter one, Bess got one to turn away from Fawad, who could only manage a faint nick, and was pouched well by Buttler behind the stumps.

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Azhar Ali seemed to have made a slight change in his batting stance by opening up his front foot, which allowed him to get a clearer view of the ball and ensure that his front leg did not come across too far, in the process reducing the chances of him getting out leg-before, a mode of dismissal he has been dismissed in countless times in his previous few innings in England. He finally seemed to have found an able partner in Mohammad Rizwan, who, despite a blow to the head from Jofra Archer afterwards, seemed to be really focused, carrying his batting form from the previous game.

Busy as a bee, Rizwan got off the mark with a powerful sweep for four off Bess, which rattled Bess momentarily as he dragged the following one down to concede three. Azhar Ali followed up with two boundaries off Bess’ following over which took him out of the attack; a sweep from outside off stump followed by a cut through point off the last ball of the over.

The flurry of boundaries helped the duo ease in and negotiate the quicks. Anderson found the edge from Rizwan, but the ball did not carry to Buttler. Jofra Archer was brought in and he presented a riveting display of short-pitched bowling at sheer pace, having been criticized earlier in the series for not bending his back enough. A streaky boundary through gully and backward point off the Barbados-born England quick brought Azhar Ali his 6,000^th Test run.

Ali got to fifty in Archer’s following over with a clip past square leg for four. More boundaries followed for him, off Anderson, Woakes and Bess as a reward for showing so much patience, resilience and temperament after getting a good start.

The duo took Pakistan to tea with the score on 158, mountains below England’s first innings runs. But the fact that their number 3 and wicketkeeper-batsman were trying to salvage a comeback, much like England in the first innings, gave the superstitious Pakistan fans a glimmer of hope.

Archer was brought back after tea for yet another short, fiery spell, but was greeted with two hits from Rizwan to the fence having erred in his length. The duo brought up their 100-run stand in the next Archer over with Azhar Ali guiding a short one from Archer over the slip cordon, a stroke repeated by his partner two overs later off the same bowler.

Dom Bess replaced Broad and was comfortably dealt with by the two batsmen, who were so used to the quicks that they found the loopy off-breaks of Bess a boon. Rizwan brought up his fifty by skipping down the track to the off-spinner and hitting him over the long-off stands.

Two overs later, another landmark, this time a more significant one, was to follow off Bess’ bowling. Azhar Ali fluently drove a half volley through the covers for four to bring up his 17^th Test hundred; a career-saving one given the circumstances. So much was he elated that he almost dropped his bat onto his face while hoisting it to acknowledge the loud cheers from the Pakistan camp.

Alas, after doing all the hard work, facing the moving deliveries from Broad and Anderson, facing Archer at full steam, looking good to get a hundred, Rizwan failed to dispatch a nothing delivery from Woakes which angled down leg, in the process managing to get a touch off the bat, which was taken by a flinging Buttler with the help of the webbing on his left glove.

Yasir Shah hung around for some time, giving Ali some company, managing almost a run-a-ball 20, before hanging his bat out to Broad, who seamed the ball away to get the edge, which flew to Root at first slip, whose reflexes were good enough.

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Buttler clearly redeemed himself as a Test Cricketer over the course of this series, first with bat in hand, and to a certain extent, with the gloves as well, diving full-length to his right and claiming his third dismissal of the day in Shaheen Afridi, who could only fend a short delivery from Broad down leg.

Having taken wickets in the beginning of the innings like helping himself to a buffet lunch, Anderson seemed to find the task of claiming his fifth wicket quite tough, and it wasn’t down to his bowling that made it tough. His 20^th over first saw Burns fail to grasp a nick from Ali which raced to the fence, then Crawley, at gully, put down a thick edge from Abbas, and in his following over, Stuart Broad put down a chance offered by Ali which had a resemblance to Joe Denly’s drop off Archer in England’s Test series in New Zealand last year. Although Broad redeemed himself by immediately retrieving the ball and scoring a direct hit at the striker’s end to run a lax Abbas, the grimace from Anderson’s face did not entirely fade away.

The grimace eventually turned into a reluctant grin for Anderson after he produced a beauty to nick last man Naseem Shah off. A delivery far too good for a number 11, Anderson took his 598^th Test scalp by angling the ball in and seaming it away after pitching, taking a big nick, and there was no spilling from the slip cordon this time. The follow-on was enforced immediately, but the quality of light was not satisfactory for the umpires to allow further play to take place.

Brief scores:

Close of play, day 3

England 1^st Innings 583/8dec (154.4 Overs)

Crawley 267, Buttler 152, Fawad Alam 2/46

Pakistan 1^st Innings 273 all out (93 Overs)

Azhar Ali 141*, Rizwan 53, Anderson 5/56

Pakistan 2^nd Innings (following on) 0/0

Pakistan trail by 310 runs