When you are a bowler, there are days of plenty and there are those of famine. The ones where the ball dips and darts to the will, on a string, or turns and spits, with a clutch of close fielders waiting expectantly knowing that it is not so much a case of if a chance comes their way, as when. But then there are the times when the pitch is flatter than an X Factor reject, the sky is clear, the ball has all the resilience of a bean bag, and there is nothing left to offer but Churchill's blood, toil, tears and sweat. This is what faced the England bowlers in the International Cricket Stadium after the spin-bowling paranoia of the batsmen had led to their self-destruction against Saeed Ajmal on the first day.
In these circumstances, bowlers hate the profligacy of the fancy-dan batsmen, resent having to haul the game back from the brink because of their charity towards the Pakistan cause. The function of the batsmen, they will tell you, is to do no more than provide them with sufficient runs at which to bowl, and in this first-innings task they have singularly failed to do so for the first time since they were beaten by Australia in Perth 13 months ago.
So England can be pleased with a tremendous second day in which they restricted Pakistan (who tend to bat with self-restraint these days in any case), 42 without loss overnight, to 288 for seven at the close, losing all the wickets for 174 after an opening stand of 114. The second new ball, which is a vital element to cricket on slow pitches, produced two wickets for Jimmy Anderson – including a brilliant, diving, one-handed catch by Matt Prior, a chance that would not otherwise have carried to first slip – and one for Graeme Swann to complete a strong response to a dire situation. If they can finish off the job first thing they will still be in the match.
The pitch on which Ajmal mesmerised England showed little sign of spin or seam then and no more on the second day until the shadows lengthened and the light began to close in. The pacemen bent their backs but whatever bounce they obtained was sluggish until Stuart Broad got some good carry late in the day. A misguided expectation that Swann would be able to reproduce Ajmal's deception, or rather Pakistan ape England's incompetence against spin, was unrealistic, however. He may not be bowling to the standard of a year ago (although that was extremely high) and sends down too many loose deliveries to satisfy his own standard.
For a lengthy period, though, Swann still got into a nice rhythm, which will get rid of the Test match rustiness, and gained a first wicket. The opener Mohammad Hafeez had batted in calm if not entirely untroubled fashion, although Ian Bell would have run him out when 44 had his throw from square leg hit, and on 55, Tremlett, at the back end of a bowling spell, made only ponderous ground as the batsman made a hash of an attempted pull against Broad and could not hang on as he dived for the chance at wide mid-on. But on 88 Hafeez decided, with premeditation, to try to sweep what proved to be a near yorker and was lbw on review.
The square here was laid using the same soil and grass as those at the nearby ICC Global Academy on which England practised, so they would anticipate deterioration towards the end of the match if not sooner. But if there were disconcerting signs for the tourists, chasing the game still, that things might be happening earlier than they would hope, they came when Jonathan Trott, an occasional bowler filling in some overs with his medium pace before the second new ball, jagged one back sharply and had the dangerous stylist Younus Khan lbw: it can only have pitched on one of the cracks that lurk on the surface.
Later, with the close in sight, England struck twice more. Misbah-ul-Haq is a dogged player but a successful one as captain and, having completed a half-century, he was looking to the close when Swann, in the day's penultimate over, spun one back into him. There was a semblance that he was hedging his bets by tucking his bat in behind his pad, and Billy Bowden's not-out decision was challenged and changed, although England's referral may have been more in hope. It did not look like an endorsement for the decision review system.
The cherry on the cake came midway through the last over, given to Anderson, who hustled one through the defence of Abdur Rehman and clipped the top of his off-stump.
It is on days such as these that a captain can earn his corn, and Andrew Strauss, together with his lieutenants, can be commended for never allowing the game to slip, even as Hafeez and Taufeeq were laying the foundations with their opening partnership. He switched his bowlers around, and they in turn changed their angles of attack. Field placings were thoughtful, and only occasionally stable-door bolting (when Younus clipped Broad through mid-on without the bowler's preferred short mid-on in place, and when Misbah edged Trott through a vacant slip area that was promptly filled).
And eventually he found the combination he was looking for with Swann, tying up an end, and Broad. Having had Hafeez dropped, he then ripped one past the outside edge of Taufeeq next ball to bowl him, and then had Azhar Ali pushing forward to offer a simple catch to Prior. When the heat is on, games are turned like that.
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