Late blows give England hope of Test turnaround

Two wickets – including that of captain Misbah-ul-Haq – in the last five balls before stumps meant Pakistan closed on 288-7.

That nonetheless gave them a lead of 96 after England’s under-par performance with the bat on day one.

But Stuart Broad, twice successful with the ball yesterday morning, described optimistic England as “delighted” with the twist in a tale which had previously seen him and his fellow bowlers toil mostly in vain.

He is hoping England can revisit the rearguard actions produced in last winter’s famous Ashes draw in Brisbane and their summer victory over India at Trent Bridge when they also came from way off the pace after a poor start.

Openers Mohammad Hafeez (88) and Taufeeq Umar (58) shared their fifth century opening stand – a Pakistan record – and Misbah added another 52.

But England got their rewards in the end for a wholehearted, disciplined and skilled display with the ball.

“Pakistan are still in a strong position – we’re chasing the game a little bit – but you look back to Brisbane, to Trent Bridge last summer, it’s going to be up to a couple of batsmen to score big hundreds,” said Broad.

“I think the batsmen are excited at putting the wrongs right from the first innings.

“Someone has an opportunity to score big runs on that wicket.

“If we can score 350 to 400 then batting last on that wicket could be quite tricky. That’s how you’ve got to plan.

“We’re quite clear in what we have to do. Someone’s going to have to bat big, bat long – and we have players who can do that.

“That’s the way we’ll win this game.”

England’s bowlers did little wrong on a fair pitch as they hauled their team back into a feasible, if not favourable, situation.

“Obviously as a bowler, you prefer to be bowling at 400 rather than 200,” he said.

“But that’s dangerous thoughts.

“I’m in a position where I’m a little bit of an all-rounder, so I can’t really just blame the batsmen because it’s my fault as well.

“We talked (yesterday) in the huddle of letting (Tuesday) go.

“We need to obviously learn from it – because we batted really badly – but it won’t do us any good dwelling on it.”

Hafeez was the hardest man to shift and although he conceded Pakistan were hoping for an even bigger advantage, they are still content.

“We were expecting a bit more, but they bowled really well,” he said. “Their fast bowlers’ lines were very good, and (Graeme) Swann bowled very well as well.

“But we’re still in a good position to really dominate this game.”

England’s hopes of bowling Pakistan out in the final innings will rest on one spinner and three seamers after their decision to leave out slow left-armer Monty Panesar.

If day one of this three-match series had featured an unscripted helter-skelter collapse, as off-spinner Saeed Ajmal spooked England with his disguise and variations, round two delivered the attritional cricket universally predicted here.

Hafeez and Taufeeq’s stand of 114 helped Pakistan move on serenely for much of the morning.

Hafeez did have two lives.

First, Ian Bell narrowly failed to run him out on 44. Then, eight runs later, Hafeez mis-pulled Broad to wide mid-on where Chris Tremlett failed to hang on to a one-handed chance diving full length to his right.

But Broad’s disappointment was soothed immediately when, next ball and after a change of strike for the single, he bowled Taufeeq with a fine delivery.

He then made short work of Azhar Ali, pushing forward in defence and getting a faint edge behind.

England grafted in vain for much of the afternoon, but did finally see the back of Hafeez when he missed a sweep at Swann and was hit just in line with off-stump – proven by DRS, at the behest of Pakistan.

It seemed that would be as good as it got for the tourists before tea, until Jonathan Trott delivered a bonus wicket.

Brought on in a holding role as England eked out their resources for the session, Trott took his first overseas wicket in his first over of this series when he got one to nip into Younus Khan off the seam for the seventh lbw dismissal of the match.

Misbah prolonged England’s struggles after tea, though, in a 140-ball half-century.

He lost Asad Shafiq to a fine catch by wicketkeeper Matt Prior, off James Anderson with the second new ball.

But Adnan Akmal survived on nine when Kevin Pietersen failed to hold on to a one-handed chance.

He and his captain then duly gave England a little more cause for regret in an unhurried half-century stand.

But a marginal DRS process went England’s way before stumps, a big off-break from Swann hitting Misbah just in line with off-stump and tracked to hit leg – and then when Anderson nipped through Abdur Rehman’s defences with the last ball of the day, the tourists were back in the equation.