ENG vs PAK, 3rd Test — Day 2 Stumps: England 453; Pakistan 133 & 52/2, trail by 268

England began the second day 23 ahead with six wickets in hand, and by tea they were 320 ahead with none. In between they scored 297 runs in 50 overs, almost six an over, in the manner of a side that had decided the only thing standing between them and a 3-0 sweep was time. By the end of the innings five batters had passed fifty. Nobody made a hundred. It did not matter in the slightest.

Then Ollie Robinson took the new ball, and the first four deliveries of Pakistan's second innings brought two wickets. For a while it looked as though this Test might be finished inside two days. The weather decided otherwise. Pakistan closed on 52 for 2, 268 behind, with three days left in the match and, realistically, one question left in it: how long can they bat?

Harry Brook resumed on 52 and took his score to 75, and a century looked to be his for the taking when he flicked a ball to midwicket and set off. Shan Masood's throw reached Saim Ayub, who broke the stumps with Brook well short. It was Pakistan's sharpest moment in the field of the match — and it came from a run England did not need. Brook's stand with Dan Lawrence had been worth 86 from 96 balls, and England were 229 for 5.

Lawrence, 5 overnight, played as though the morning had a closing time. He reached fifty from 47 balls, hit nine fours in all, and was on 65 from 82 when he dragged a wide delivery from Mohammad Imran onto his stumps — the debutant's first Test wicket. England went to lunch on 299 for 6: 143 runs in the session, at nearly six an over. Lawrence's own verdict afterwards was honest and unhurried.

Jamie Smith batted through an injury to the ring finger on his left hand — serious enough that he did not keep wicket in the evening, Jordan Cox taking the gloves — and it did not show in his strokeplay. He reached fifty from 54 balls, struck nine fours and a straight six off Saim Ayub, and made 69 from 84 before a leading edge gave Razaullah a return catch at 372. Gus Atkinson had gone for 19, bowled by Imran, at 331.

What followed was the part of the day that will sting Pakistan most. Ollie Robinson made 50 from 47 balls, with seven fours and a six into the Hollies Stand off Mohammad Abbas; it was, reportedly, only his second Test fifty, and he was out to the very next ball he faced after reaching it, caught by Shan Masood off Razaullah. Jofra Archer hit two sixes in an unbeaten 32 from 27, and Josh Tongue made 15 before he was caught behind off Mohammad Ali to end the innings at 453, on the stroke of tea.

Consider the arithmetic. From 331 for 7, England's last three wickets added 122. England's Nos. 8 to 11 — Atkinson, Robinson, Archer and Tongue — made 116 between them. Pakistan's entire first innings was 133.

Robinson's first ball found the edge of Saim Ayub's bat and Harry Brook took a sharp, chest-high catch at second slip. Ayub, out for 0 from his tenth ball in the first innings, had made a pair in his first Test since 2025. Three balls later Abdullah Shafique edged low to Joe Root at first slip — by the reported count, the fifth time Robinson has dismissed him in six innings this series, and a catch that took Root past Steve Smith to 220 Test catches as a fielder. Pakistan were 0 for 2.

What happened next deserves to be written down, because Pakistan have had few enough evenings like it. Azan Awais counter-attacked, hitting six fours in 30 balls. Shan Masood, dropped by Ben Duckett at slip off Gus Atkinson on 13 — reportedly Duckett's third put-down of the match — stayed. The pair added 52 from 72 balls. A short shower took the players off at 46 for 2; they came back for six more deliveries before heavier rain arrived at 52 for 2, and there was no more play.

Rain, for once this summer, was on Pakistan's side. It will not save them. But it gave them a night, and gave Awais and Masood 52 unbroken runs to sleep on.

The easy line is that Pakistan conceded 453, and it is true. The fairer line is that a debutant with, by the Express Tribune's count, eight first-class matches to his name took four wickets on the first two days of his Test career, and they were not tail-end wickets: Razaullah dismissed Joe Root, Emilio Gay, Jamie Smith and Ollie Robinson. His 23 overs cost 148, which is the price a 21-year-old fast bowler pays for learning in public, and he kept coming back with wickets.

Mohammad Imran, the other debutant seamer, was the tightest of the attack: 16 overs for 47 and two wickets, Lawrence and Atkinson. The cost was elsewhere — 45 extras, including 12 no-balls and 18 byes, the sixth-highest contribution to England's total. That is the sort of leak that a settled side plugs and a side reassembled in the days after Lord's does not.

Nasser Hussain, on Sky, made a point worth separating from the scorecard: his criticism of Saim Ayub's recall was aimed at the selection, noting that Ayub had come from the CPL without having played first-class cricket for eleven months. A pair is a hard way to start a Test comeback. It is a harder thing to be sent into one underprepared.

Saud Shakeel had said on the first evening that the pitch would improve, and the second day proved him right in the least welcome way. On a surface where fourteen wickets fell on Day 1, England scored 297 on Day 2 for the loss of six, with Lawrence, Smith and Robinson all reaching fifty on the day. On the numbers, the ball stopped doing enough off the seam to trouble set batters, and the older it got, the easier it looked.

The new ball is another matter. In all three innings of this Test it has done its damage early: Pakistan 26 for 4 in the first, England 39 for 3 in the first twelve overs of theirs, Pakistan 0 for 2 after four balls of the second. What differs is what happens after that opening burst — and on the evidence of Awais and Masood's 52, even Pakistan can bat on this pitch once it has passed. Reports noted that Pakistan have not batted beyond 51 overs in any innings this series. That, more than the pitch, is the number that frames Day 3.

Our Day 1 note said Pakistan's best window was the first hour, before Brook settled back in, and that a lead of 150 would make the rest of the match a formality. Pakistan did get Brook in the first session — but through a run-out, not a bowler, and after he had added 23 more. The lead was 320. Our preview named Mohammad Abbas as Pakistan's player to watch; he bowled 23 overs for 95 and a single wicket, Jordan Cox on the first afternoon, on a surface that — on the numbers — offered little once the shine had gone. The preview's view that Edgbaston would bat better than Lord's looked wrong on Day 1 and right on Day 2.

Pakistan need 268 more to make England bat again, with eight wickets in hand. Awais is 29 not out, Masood 21, with Babar Azam, Saud Shakeel, Ghazi Ghori and the tail to come. The first hour against Robinson — whose match figures now read 17-8-25-5, and whose series tally is 21 wickets — will decide most of it. By the reported count, Pakistan have not batted beyond 51 overs in an innings this series; getting past that mark on Friday would be the clearest sign that the last two hours of Thursday were not a mirage.

For England, the only question is how many overs the weather gives them. Smith's finger is the one concern; Cox kept wicket in his place on Thursday evening. The rest is patience, and Robinson.