Saud leads Pakistan charge to leave second Test with England finely poised

Sunday in Multan was the halfway point of this historic Test series and an hour after lunch, as a bumper crowd sat silenced by a trio of dismissals usually associated with fast bowlers from these parts, England appeared to be surging towards an unassailable 2-0 scoreline.

Set what would be a record 355 for victory on Pakistan soil after Harry Brook’s second century of the tour – a masterful 108 from 149 balls – the home side were 83 for three and looking bereft. Jimmy Anderson had vaporised Mohammad Rizwan with a delivery to rank among the best of his 674 Test wickets, while Ollie Robinson and Mark Wood picked up collectors’ items of their own.

And yet whether driven by a sense of atonement for their first-innings collapse – or simply the kind of backs‑to‑the‑wall predicament that their cricketers relish – Pakistan pushed back, the diminutive pairing of Saud Shakeel and Imam‑ul‑Haq adding 108 runs for the fourth wicket through two hours of characterful, dogged batting.

Such was the control shown on a pitch playing as well as it had all match, England were starting to twitch. This in part came down to a morning collapse of five for 19 that meant the door wasn’t fully bolted. They had also handed Imam a couple of lives on 19 and 54, Will Jacks putting the local hero down off his own bowling and a faint tickle down leg off Wood undetected by everyone.

But barely minutes before sunset, on a day when his figures took a bit of a pounding, Jack Leach managed to allay some of this creeping English dread, Imam driving loosely to slip on 60 to see Pakistan close on 198 for four from 64 overs. The wonderfully composed Saud was still there unbeaten on 54, however, and a positively intriguing fourth day had been set up.

As was the