'Slippery customer' Rehan Ahmed squeezes the life out of Pakistan - Chris Waters comment

On Test Match Special, the talk was of how ‘Aggers’ had seen a bird carrying a snake in its beak.

Anyone waking in England at this point, stubbornly resisting the urge to drag themselves out of bed on a cold December morning, might at least have found it difficult to inadvertently drop off again.

“Was it a snake, or was it a twig?” mused the TMS crew, with not a lot happening in the middle at the time.

Either way, it was hard to shake the image of some unsuspecting feathered creature inadvertently alighting on a black cobra, say, or a Russell’s viper. Yikes.

The day was drifting alright, to the extent that Pakistan, snake-like, now had hopes of squeezing the life out of England by setting a challenging fourth-innings chase.

But from 164-3 midway through the afternoon, a lead of 114, the hosts collapsed to 216 all-out, leg-spinner Rehan Ahmed taking five of the last seven wickets to finish with 5-48 and become, at 18 years and 128 days, the youngest Test debutant to claim a five-for.

England would have won inside three days but for the fact that the clock and light beat them, closing on 112-2 from just 17 overs in pursuit of 167.

Ben Stokes promoted Rehan to No 3 and himself to No 4 to try to finish the job as the shadows lengthened, after Zak Crawley and Ben Duckett blazed an opening stand of 87 in 11.3 overs.

Alas for the tourists, hopes of two days off were not to be.

Perhaps Stokes and his men are mortal after all.

The audacity of England’s attempt to win it at speed was no surprise, but no one could have foreseen the remarkable swing in the day’s second half, which was almost Mbappe-like in its sudden shift from one side to the other, a la Sunday’s World Cup final in Qatar.

When Stokes threw the ball to Ahmed for the 50th over, the score was 154-3 and many wondered why the captain had not made the move earlier, with Babar Azam and Saud Shakeel ensconced in the throes of a century stand and the pitch flatter than a flat-headed snake.

Ten runs later, and as so often happens with leg-spinners, a bad ball struck gold when Babar pulled a drag down to mid-wicket, where Ollie Pope’s reflex catch completed an almost club-type dismissal.

When Mohammad Rizwan was undone by a leg-break that turned just enough, and Shakeel outwitted by a googly that he tried to sweep, Pakistan were 177-6 just before tea and the day had been transformed as surely as Mbappe’s late double strike in normal time for France against Argentina.

After a wicket each for Joe Root and Mark Wood, Rehan claimed the final two scalps as Mohammad Wasim thumped a googly to mid-on and Agha Salman swept to short fine-leg, where Harry Brook supplied the usual safe hands.

Rehan sank to his knees and touched his forehead to the ground, then his beaming smile - all gleaming white teeth and unbridled joy - said everything as he accepted the congratulations of colleagues.

The Leicestershire lad, playing only his fourth first-class game, led the players off, gaily tossing the ball from hand to hand while his father in the stands slowly raised his sunglasses to wipe away tears.

In those moments, it was impossible not to feel elated for Rehan and his family and to be reminded of sport’s intrinsic joy. Cherish it when you can, for there is enough misery in the game, as we have sadly seen in Yorkshire of late.

As Lord Patel, the club’s chairman, said during last week’s craven and contemptible DCMS attack on this newspaper, one given no right to defend itself against defamatory and inaccurate allegations in the same protected platform by the way, cricket is a game when all is said and done.

It is, I fancy, one of the very few statements that his Lordship has made that I actually agree with.

Much has been made of the fact that Rehan does not yet spin his leg-break a great deal, whereas his googly already goes a long way. No matter.

The key is that he turns it “just enough”; it is not necessary for every ball to rip past the bat, leaving opponents and onlookers agog.

Hedley Verity, one of the greatest bowlers in Yorkshire’s history, famously got just enough turn with his stock ball, and he didn’t do too badly - 1,956 first-class wickets at 14.9.

Verity, who played between the wars, was nicknamed “Clear Gum” in the Yorkshire dressing room due to the fact that he advertised Rowntrees Clear Gums - “the nation’s favourite sweet”.

As Ellis Robinson, his fellow spinner and Yorkshire team-mate once said: “Clear Gum ‘tonned’ it just enough - half a bat. I used to ‘ton’ it too much - that’s why t’ball kept slipping down t’leg-side.” Quite.

Like a snake instinctively applying the right amount of pressure to its victims, “just enough” is all it needs.