On Wednesday, under some classic Manchester clouds, Test cricket was cast in a bad light. Yesterday, it could hardly have looked better. We had a pulsating, fluctuating, palpitating day – England taking control in the morning, Pakistan breaking free after lunch when Shadab Khan ran riot, England fighting back as Jofra Archer and Stuart Broad wrapped up the tail. A first innings of 326 was just right: could be a winning score, could be a loser. And then came the coup de théâtre. Six overs of carnage, England 12 for three, their worst start in a home Test innings for 20 years.
Pakistan had done three things spectacularly well: opening the batting (Shan Masood’s 156 was 13 times as many as England’s openers managed between them), opening the bowling (pace at one end, guile at the other, intent at both), and making some noise. In an empty ground, where others have settled for eerie silence, the Pakistanis worked out that the role of the crowd could be played by their players. It doesn’t take 20,000 people to fill the air with feeling.
When Ben Stokes was out, thrusting that broad bat at thin air, England were in a deep hole, and a dilemma. Their first three partnerships hadn’t lasted six overs, and there were about 22 to go before the close. If your policy is to build an innings slowly, what do you do when your opponents know how to destroy one fast? Joe Root stuck to plan A, defending doggedly, never looking like himself, eventually falling to a tired shot. Ollie Pope went straight to plan B, the counter-attack, and looked more like Joe Root than Joe Root. Purposeful in everything he did, Pope fought flair with flair.
He was joined by Jos Buttler, who had rescued his Test career in the last game, only to risk it again by dropping Masood before he had reached 50. Somehow Buttler put all that out of his mind and started well – positively, Popishly. The two of them have given England a slim chance of a respectable score if they can get through the first half-hour. But they’re still in a tight corner – so tight that it could be Shane Warne’s trousers. From the minute Shadab came in, like the outsider in a story who shakes up a sleepy town, this match has been pure drama. Long may it last.