Pak vs Eng – England ignore the little things while they have a big task ahead of them

Trailing by 127 points overnight on a pitch that was rapidly deteriorating, England needed almost everything to get them on their way. The plan was quite simple: push for parity in the first session and hope that Pakistan would suffer another mental block in the third innings that would allow England to get back into the game.

Instead, their day was marked by missed opportunities – two of them in three balls at the start of Salman Agha's innings. Salman kept England in the lead last week, scoring 167 runs once in the first Test, but offered two chances before reaching double figures. Both went under, and he made England pay for their waste.

Carse looked dejected at the first drop, but then squatted in disbelief when the second chance failed two balls later. Salman's thick outside edge flew to Joe Root, who got in so tight at slip that he was wearing a helmet, touching the ball with both hands but unable to hold on to it. Ben Stokes couldn't hide his anger and swore in frustration.

In the heat of the afternoon, Carse was in a tiring spell in the fifth over, hitting the field as hard as he could, but his fielders let him down. Stokes was ticking, and when Salman guided the first ball of Carse's next ball over the wicket, hitting a single that he felt could have been stopped, he made his feelings clear.

England also had sloppy moments in the field in the first Test, although their tremendous batting performance ensured they were not costly. They dropped at least six catches, including four in the first 30 overs of Pakistan's second innings, while Ollie Pope missed a run-out chance and Smith botched a stumping.

But as Stokes watched, he was generally impressed by England's attitude on the field, particularly their determination to chase every ball to the limit in temperatures of over 40 degrees. On the eve of that game, he said their desire to do “the really little things” showed their “cohesion and team spirit.” On Thursday it briefly let them down.

“It’s frustrating at times,” said Paul Collingwood, England’s assistant coach. “It's unusual to be so close to the bat, but the nature of the pitch is that you have to try to make sure every edge supports it. We saw a lot of balls that bounced through to Jamie Smith twice… Those guys did it.” He probably got two or three meters closer to actually take the lead.

There were other half-chances missed throughout the Pakistan innings: Root could barely see the first at slip as Saud Shakeel's thick edge flew over his left shoulder, while Zak Crawley got a finger in a hard grip at short cover. Ben Duckett almost managed to hold off an athletic self-relay attempt but couldn't get back to his feet in time.

Carse, who was extremely impressive in his first two Tests, must have regretted his misfortune. During a ninth-wicket stand worth 65 between Salman and Sajid Khan that cost England their lives, he thought he had brought Sajid back on the 16th. But his attempts to convince Chris Gaffaney were unsuccessful and a DRS failure denied him the chance to prove otherwise.

In other circumstances these misses would hardly be worth mentioning, but England were exhausted on a day when only a hot spell would suffice. Pakistan's bold decision to change their strategy between Tests and reuse the same jersey in the hope that it would turn around depended heavily on winning the toss, but from the moment they did, they had the nose ahead.

Betting is banned in Pakistan, but her brain confidence has suffered a setback that has paid off. “Pakistan took a risk by winning the toss and they did the same in this Test match,” Collingwood said. “As we saw on the first day, the course played pretty well. It's a risk they wanted to take and a risk they wanted to take in selection. But from our point of view, we can't complain.” “

England are not out of this game yet, as one look at McCullum's white soles proves as Root and Pope scored an unbroken 25 towards the end of the day. They have made a habit of picking up victories in unlikely situations in Pakistan, but completing their highest ever run in Asia on Matchday 9 could be their biggest challenge yet.