England v
Pakistan: 1st Test, Day 3
Headingley ’81,
or Malahide ’18?
May 26th 2018
Up until mid-afternoon today, Pakistan had done everything right and
England had done everything wrong. Even with a man short, Pakistan were odds-on
to win and seemed certain to do it in three days. England were in all kinds of
strife. They had fallen from 91-2 to 110-6 in 38 catastrophic deliveries before
Tea. Buttler and Bess survived the last three and a half overs until the
interval but, after the way that the tail was blown away in the first innings,
everything pointed to a rapid finish after the break.
Seeing how Dom Bess played initially as if he was facing hand grenades
in a minefield, you would not have given him much hope of seeing out the time
until Tea, let alone helping England into a fourth day. However, he had one
thing going for him and that was guts. If you had to elect two players to save
England, it would not have been a questioned slogger, with no red ball form at
all in the last two years and a twenty-year-old debutant with only a handful of
First Class games behind him.
The last time that Jos Buttler scored a First Class 50 was in Mumbai in
December 2016. It is his only half century in twenty-seven innings, which also
gives an idea just how little red-ball cricket he plays. Buttler is an enigma:
he has incredible talent, he shows that when he plays in the IPL and when he
plays in ODIs, but he struggles to convert it into any kind of consistency in
the longer form. In eighteen Tests, he has 6x50, but a top score of 85 and an
average of 31.4: almost the same as his average in First Class cricket, but far
lower than his average in ODIs where he can play with more freedom. Dom Bess
averages 25.4 with the bat in his fledgling First Class career, with 1x100 and
2x50.
Slowly, very slowly, Buttler and Bess gained confidence after Tea and
started to counter-attack. It was the sort of situation where the stuntman is
working without a safety net and the first slip spells the end of the
performance. Lots of quick singles, lots of caution, but hitting the bad balls.
Slowly, they brought down the deficit. Maybe England would not lose by an
innings: a boundary from the increasingly confident Dom Bess, who no longer
found the edge of the bat, but, instead, was middling the ball nicely, obliged
Pakistan to bat again. Then, maybe Buttler could reach a fifty and, with it,
make a point. Another boundary and the landmark was duly reached.
By now, the lead, though tiny, started to grow just swiftly enough for
Pakistan – both players and fans – to get nervous. Then it was the hundred
partnership. Then it was Dom Bess’s fourth First Class fifty and by far his
most important. The bubble of hope started to grow. Maybe Buttler and Bess could
make it to the Close. Maybe they could survive long enough to get some help
from the rain promised on the last two days. Maybe they could even get far
enough ahead for the always unstable Pakistan batting to implode in a chase.
If England need anything to give them hope it was the way that Pakistan
panicked against Ireland at Malahide. Ireland were 157-6, 23 behind still and
looking set for an innings defeat. The Kevin O’Brien scored a century. Stuart
Thompson, fifty. Ireland entered the last day 139 ahead, with three wickets
left and with hopes of making Pakistan sweat. Even though the innings ended
quickly on the fifth morning, Pakistan found themselves 14-3, chasing 160 to
win. Although Pakistan won, in the end, fairly comfortably, they showed how
easily they can panic.
At the Close, England were just 56 ahead. Effectively 56-6 in a
one-innings match. The new ball is two overs away. To have any hope of saving
the match, Sir Geoffrey believes that England must bat through to Lunch tomorrow
at least. To be brutally honest, even that would offer only the slimmest of
hopes as it would imply a lead of only around 150. England will need a century
from at least one of the not out batsmen, runs from other and a couple of
significant scores from the last three. It is a tall order.
At Malahide, Ireland resisted, but lost in the end.
However, what no one dares to mention is that there is another
precedent. Say it softly: Headingley 1981.
Just occasionally, all logic goes out to lunch and doesn’t come back. At
Headingley, in 1981, England were in an even worse mess yet, somehow, contrived
to win because the opposition panicked. Headingley was a rare and extraordinary
event but, if you keep battling, just occasionally something like Headingley
will happen and a game will be saved that should not be saved and, may even be
won. It was a don that England acquired between 2009 and 2011 and trotted out
at places as far afield as Cardiff, Durban, Cape Town and Brisbane. It is too
long since we have seen England show this ability to hang on when a match seems
lost, but it is sorely needed now.
The most likely result is that England will lose by 5 or 6 wickets,
sometime tomorrow. If they do, it will be as if this evening’s partnership
never happened but maybe, just maybe, they will show the self-belief to make
something marvellous happen.
However, if Pakistan win. When Pakistan win, it will be no more than
they have deserved in this match.
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