England take control on day where Pakistan bowlers were unable to make significant inroads into opposition batting order.

By PakPassion.net Staff (2nd November, 2015)

Overnight: England - 4/0 in 2.0 overs (AN Cook 0, MM Ali 4)

First Session: With the pitch showing signs of turn on Day 1, it was expected that Pakistan's spinners would do the bulk of the work today. Shoaib Malik was the first to cause a problem as an ugly slog across the line from Moeen Ali took his top edge and looped to slip.

Cook and Bell then came together to resist Pakistan's bowlers. The pair scored at a good pace and in the large part looked fairly untroubled.

England reached 87/1 at lunch, a strong position given Pakistan's disappointing batting effort yesterday.

Second Session: The post-lunch session started well for the home side, as Yasir Shah dismissed the dangerous Alistair Cook for 49, an inside edge on to the pad being taken at short leg. Joe Root then suffered his first failure of the tour after a miserly Rahat Ali spell eventually led to him finding Root's outside edge, and Sarfraz took a sharp one handed catch. It left England in a precarious position at 97/3, effectively 97/4 as Ben Stokes is out of the Test match.

James Taylor, playing just his 3rd Test, joined Ian Bell and the pair got stuck in against some more tight bowling from Pakistan. It was very slow going but they saw their side safely through to tea at 135/3.

Third Session: There was more early success for Pakistan in the session, Yasir Shah getting another wicket this time of Ian Bell. The batsman came out of his crease but the ball spun past his bat and Sarfraz completed an easy stumping.

After that England prospered. James Taylor batted wonderfully against the spinners and Jonny Bairstow showed signs of having learnt how to bat on these wickets. By the close of play, the pair had put on 83 runs and England were just 12 runs behind Pakistan's 1st inning score.

Summary: So just 4 wickets in the day for Pakistan. The game was in the balance at one point when Bell was out but the partnership between Bairstow and Taylor has given England firm control of the Test. Taylor in particular proved his value and showed why he should probably have been recalled a lot sooner.

A lot of work for Pakistan to do. But with Stokes out of the Test, England are effectively 5 down and a couple of quick wickets tomorrow should minimise England's lead.

Fall of wickets:

1-19 (Ali, 8.4 ov), 
2-90 (Cook, 37.2 ov), 
3-97 (Root, 42.1 ov)
4-139 (Bell, 62.4 ov)

Discuss!