More rain sent the second Test squelching towards a damp-squib draw, made even more disappointing by the fact that the small amount of play possible on day four teased at an enthralling contest.
Despite squeezing in 10.2 overs of compelling cricket – more than on the washed-out third day – the players left the field after an hour as the rain arrived, remaining so heavy that stumps was called shortly before 4pm with the outfield too wet to even attempt a mopping-up operation.
While play was allowed, England claimed the one wicket they needed to wrap up Pakistan’s first innings and lost one of their own when Rory Burns fell to Shaheen Shah Afridi on the fourth ball of the reply.
Pakistan resumed on 223 for 9 with Mohammad Rizwan unbeaten on 60 and Naseem Shah not out 1.
Rizwan came out swinging but failed to connect with James Anderson’s first ball. He scored a four in each of Anderson’s next two overs, the first charging down the pitch and getting a thick outside edge to an intended straight hit that sailed over gully’s head, the second a more controlled jab through backward point.
But he fell a short time later, having added 12 to his overnight score, when he shovelled the ball to Zak Crawley at cover to give Stuart Broad his fourth wicket.
Afridi made the early breakthrough for Pakistan, dismissing Burns for a four-ball duck. He almost had a wicket first ball but Burns’ nick to Asad Shafiq at second slip didn’t quite carry. Shafiq gobbled up the catch a short time later though, to send Burns on his way and put England at 0 for 1 in reply to Pakistan’s first-innings 236. Dom Sibley and Crawley both wore body blows from Mohammad Abbas who, like Afridi, was finding sublime movement to keep the batsmen under intense scrutiny before the weather had the final say for the fourth day in a row.
