Stuart Broad confident England can defy weather and secure series victory over Pakistan

Just 86 overs have been possible across two dank days in Southampton, meaning another 94 have been lost to a combination of rain and bad light.

Things have progressed reasonably quickly when the players have found their way to the middle, with the tourists reaching 223-9 before the umpires deemed the visibility to be compromised.

Both sides had reason to be disappointed by that judgement, England denied the chance to wrap up the first innings and Pakistan missing out on the chance of bowling under the same leaden skies that helped Broad and James Anderson pick up three wickets apiece.

“It still feels a result pitch, we just need the light and the rain to play ball,” said Broad after a 40-over day in which he took two of his side’s four wickets.

“Even with losing a bit of time in this game, it feels we could get a result on this pitch.”

Broad was sympathetic to umpires Michael Gough and Richard Kettleborough, who were spared a barracking for dragging the teams back to the pavilion by the absence of fans in the bio-secure bubble, suggesting their duty of care trumped any desire to advance the match situation.

“It’s a tricky one because player safety is very important. If you have bowlers bowling at 85mph-plus and it’s gloomy out there, it can be dangerous for batsmen,” he said.

“The officials were right to bring us off, it had dropped below the darkness that we had come off for earlier in the day and all of our fielders were saying ‘we wouldn’t want to bat in this, this is quite dark’. There’s been occasions in Test cricket when there’s been a crowd and we thought we could have been on the pitch but today has been gloomy all day and it has felt like it’s been slightly on the dark side of being suitable to play.”