Passive Pakistan and captain Azhar Ali lost their nerve to squander first Test

Pakistan's Yasir Shah, center, captain Azhar Ali, left, and Mohammad Rizwan appeal unsuccessfully for the wicket of England's Jos Buttler - Getty Pool 
Pakistan's Yasir Shah, center, captain Azhar Ali, left, and Mohammad Rizwan appeal unsuccessfully for the wicket of England's Jos Buttler - Getty Pool

The ball was well outside off stump, just short of a length, and seemed harmless enough. Then, it reared up viciously to thud into Ollie Pope’s glove and balloon up to an exuberant Shadab Khan.

In this moment, it seemed, was confirmation of a brilliant Test match victory, and an extension of Pakistan’s remarkable record in England. Since 1987, Pakistan have lost the first Test in England only two out of eight times, and only the series itself twice.

This was a Test match that Pakistan had controlled ever since Shan Masood and Shadab had combined for a breezy 105-run stand on the second day.

Pakistan’s fantastic bowling quintet ensured that they did not relinquish that control, even when an infuriating second-innings collapse threatened to fritter away their advantage. And when Pope was dismissed, to leave England 117 for five and still 160 shy of their target, it seemed as if this control would yield an emphatic Test victory.

Jos Buttler arrived at the crease with England in crisis and his own wicketkeeping under unprecedented scrutiny. His answer was to draw upon the wisdom of Ferdinand Foch, the French World War One general: “My centre is giving way, my right is retreating, situation excellent, I am attacking.”

Many think this approach represents Buttler’s best chance of converting his wondrous ball-striking talents into a Test average a notch above his current 32.

And as Buttler responded to Pope’s dismissal with a reverse-swept four three balls later, he showed how the value of his approach can transcend runs. It can also be detected in how he disorientates his opponents and makes them mislay their control.

The evening before he walked out to bat, Chris Woakes made clear what he thought England’s approach to their onerous run chase should be. “We’ve got to try and be a bit proactive and take the positive approach, rather than sit in and go about it the long way,” he said. “The longer you’re there at the crease, the more you probably feel like there’s one with your name on it.”

England's Jos Buttler, left, and Chris Woakes fist bump during the fourth day of the first cricket Test match between England and Pakistan  - Getty Pool 
England's Jos Buttler, left, and Chris Woakes fist bump during the fourth day of the first cricket Test match between England and Pakistan - Getty Pool

It was not an approach England embraced at the start of their innings, scoring at 2.6 an over until Woakes arrived. England could hardly be faulted for their lethargy given the unrelenting accuracy with which Pakistan bowled – but Woakes, like Buttler, recognised that calculated aggression offered the only chance of ridding Pakistan of their control.

Woakes slashed his first ball through gully for four, and then unfurled a series of booming drives against Pakistan’s pace attack. Despite his recent travails against the short ball, Pakistan seldom attacked him with short deliveries, perhaps because they had run preservation in mind.

By any rational analysis, Pakistan remained comfortably ascendant in the game. Yet, as Buttler and Woakes counter-attacked with such alacrity that they had brought up fifty within 49 balls, Azhar Ali betrayed the method that had brought Pakistan such a stranglehold on the game.

Sweepers were posted on both sides of the ground. Buttler no longer had need for audacious reverse sweeps; now, he could tick over against Yasir Shah, as if it was the middle overs of a one-day international, by pushing him down the ground or flicking him to square leg for singles. Pakistan’s body language became more passive; misfields crept in.

For all the rollicking start to the Buttler-Woakes alliance, they adapted when Ali changed tack. The boundaries they hit in the first seven overs of their partnership induced Ali to protect runs, creating an opportunity for regular singles. From 12 boundaries in their first 17 overs, they only hit a solitary boundary in their last 16 over together

If this was wonderfully shrewd batting, it also exploited Ali’s cautious captaincy. He had never previously led Pakistan – or even his first-class team – when defending a total in a tense run chase. Even when England still needed approaching 100 – a position that made Pakistan comfortable favourites – Pakistan seemed curiously passive. Barely an hour after England were in disarray, Ali gave the impression of being a man who had lost faith in what had got Pakistan this far in the Test.

Chris Woakes celebrates after edging the winning runs through the slips - Reuters
Chris Woakes celebrates after edging the winning runs through the slips - Reuters

And so, just at a moment when England should have been under the most intense pressure, batting for England came to look easier than at any previous point in the Test.

Buttler and Woakes were allowed the risk-free accumulation that England had been denied all Test, which denied Pakistan’s attack the chance to work out a plan over a sequence of deliveries. In Test cricket a maiden comes every five overs; Buttler and Woakes’s 33-over alliance did not contain a single one.

One fallacy of Test cricket is that matches are won by whoever wins the most sessions. Pakistan’s disintegration exposed the limits of that idea.

All told, Pakistan could only have been said to have lost two – three, at a push – of the first ten sessions in this Test.

But the brutality of Test cricket is that advantages are hard won but easily lost. This was Pakistan’s fate: first in their tame batting display after tea on the third day, and then by one partnership that turned Pakistan from relentless to rag-tag after tea on the fourth day.

Over four days Pakistan displayed the qualities needed to win Test matches in England. But as they lost first their nerve, then their control and finally their edge, four days of excellence culminated only in agonising defeat.