On a sunlit Saturday evening Jos Buttler and Dom Bess, both oblivious to the torments endured in the dressing room of England’s Test team over the winter, saved their side from total ignominy. At 110 for six at tea, a basketful of humiliations were on the horizon: a three-day finish, an innings defeat, a terrible loss of face, not to mention income, which is deemed quite important in these parts.
Then Buttler and Bess, both revelling in the chance to show their worth rather than fearing the consequence of another failure, calmly restored order by batting throughout the final session in an unbeaten stand of 125. Bess posted his maiden Test half-century and the debutant had the nerve, when acknowledging the crowd’s applause, to give the impression that this was a routine event for him - without quite succeeding.
This was a heartwarming moment even for those not born west of Taunton. At the very least this pair have delayed the inquests into a horrid performance by England at Lord’s. Currently they lead by 56 with four wickets in hand, far from ideal but it could have been so much worse.
Until Saturday’s final session the only thing that England had won in this match was the toss – and that did not do them much good. Pakistan have batted, bowled and caught better against all the odds. It is May; it is England in their own backyard (if we can refer to Lord’s so irreverently). So all had seemed set fair for Joe Root’s side after the travails of the winter. For two days conditions were archetypally English with a greenish pitch below and cloud cover above, perfect for playing against a callow Pakistan side, currently ranked seventh in the world, or so we thought.
To claw their way back into this game England had to mount a significant second innings score on the third day and there was reason to believe that this was possible. The sun was out; the pitch had changed colour with the green tinge fast disappearing.
But then England started batting and by tea they were in disarray. As in the first innings, Pakistan’s bowlers were wonderfully disciplined; they bowled full and straight and with their supple wrists behind the seam they found flickers of movement; they were supported by alert, rather than athletic, fielders eager to snaffle any chance that came their way and comforted by the fact that only Root among the top order threatened any kind of permanence. The rest were out of form or out of luck and appeared almost resigned to the fact that the task ahead was too monumental - the first-innings deficit was 179.
The Pakistan bowlers propelled some serious deliveries to undermine the top order but even during the periods in between the fall of wickets, there was the impression that England were going nowhere. This sense of fragility was triggered in the second over of the innings when Alastair Cook was lbw to Mohammad Abbas. It was a devilish delivery to any newly-arrived batsman since it jagged down the slope before thudding into the knee roll of Cook’s pad, one of those lbws where the experienced batsman does not even bother to glance at his partner to check the merit of a review. Instead Cook turned immediately and headed towards an uncomfortably silent Long Room.
Mark Stoneman was clearly out of touch but determined to hang on in there, if only to earn the sobriquet “Stonewall”, and he survived long enough to prompt Sarfraz Ahmed to introduce his spinner. Stoneman edged a boundary against Shadab Khan and was then scuttled by a nasty delivery that turned out of the rough and kept low before hitting the off-stump. This was a “respectable” dismissal but in this match there has been no evidence to suggest that Stoneman has a place in England’s strongest XI for the Headingley Test, which starts next Friday.
Dawid Malan was barely more fluent alongside Root. The crowd was uneasy, willing England to progress, cheering the odd delicate boundary from Root, not out of any patriotic fervour; they just craved a contest. A deft late cut against Mohammad Amir took Root to his 50, out of a total of 76 for two, which demonstrated the gulf between him and the rest.
Then the game swung violently after the drinks interval in the afternoon session. Another tentative prod against Amir from Malan produced an edge and a fine sprawling catch by Sarfraz, diving to his left. Two balls later Jonny Bairstow was bowled by a perfect in-swinger from Amir; it’s hard to replicate those in practice however assiduously you go about your business.
Ben Stokes announced himself with two crisp boundaries before departing to a soft dismissal. He punched a shortish ball from Shadab firmly to mid-wicket, where the substitute fielder, Fakhar Zaman, held a fine catch. When Root was lbw to the constantly impressive Abbas for 67, England had slumped to 110 for six and all was glum at Lord’s. Then the mood was magically lifted by Buttler and Bess.
There was nothing unorthodox from Buttler. He was positive but never extravagant in his strokeplay and, unlike several others, he is manifestly seeing the ball well, just as he was for the Rajasthan Royals 10 days ago. Unsurprisingly, Bess was tentative at the start but not overawed. Then he hit two flighty boundaries against Faheem Ashraf and he settled in, stroking six more fours with ever-increasing assurance. Meanwhile, Buttler was happy with an unaccustomed, avuncular role at the other end. Probably for the first time in the match, the new national selector Ed Smith wore a smile.