Seventeen years since a nail-biting run chase in Multan was detonated spectacularly by Shoaib Akhtar, it was England who had the dynamite at their disposal. Mark Wood blew through Pakistan either side of lunch on the fourth day to claim a nervy 26-run win in the second Test and a famous series victory.
England had won two Tests on Pakistani soil before this tour but in the space of two weeks, and after last week’s ransacking of Rawalpindi, they have now doubled that tally.
Ben Stokes and his band of ultra-aggressors will head to Karachi for the series finale that starts on Saturday with an unassailable 2-0 lead and another chapter in their remarkable transformation secured. Rewind to this time last winter and England’s Test team was in tatters, hurtling towards an Ashes defeat in Australia that would spark sackings and the launch of the latest introspective review. Well, eight wins from nine under Stokes and his sparky head coach, Brendon McCullum, sounds very much like high performance, both by way of results and the manner in which they have been delivered.
Not that it was one-way traffic in a dizzying subcontinental city where the highway code is effectively everyone for themselves. Pakistan fought tooth-and-nail in their pursuit of 355 and a record chase on home turf, inducing a fair degree of creeping English dread as Saud Shakeel, a nuggety left-hander, steered his side to within 65 runs of victory, just five wickets down.
But, as has become a theme of his first year as England captain, Stokes was able to bend the script to his will once more, throwing the ball to Wood, setting the field for a barrage of short balls and seeing the fastest weapon in his armoury deliver a gamebreaking six-over spell.
Wood, playing his first Test since March after a summer of two elbow operations and rehab, returned three wickets in figures of four for 65 and changed the course of this undulating contest.
While Shoaib rearranged English stumps back in 2005, Wood was aiming squarely for Pakistani torsos, first terminating a breezy 45 from Mohammad Nawaz – and an 80-run stand with Saud – when the all-rounder gloved down the leg side. The biggest moment of the day – and the greatest talking point by far – came in Wood’s follow-up over, however, Saud tickling another short ball into the ribcage to Ollie Pope behind the stumps.
The umpires, Aleem Dar and Marais Erasmus, were not 100% convinced the ball was taken cleanly, instead sending it upstairs with a soft signal of out. But though replays suggested Pope may have dragged the ball along the turf while taking it low to his right, gloves pointing down, Joel Wilson in the TV umpire’s booth felt unable to overrule the pair under the regulations and England were celebrating once more.
A personal, minority view was that the decision was just about fair enough. And only one fact mattered: Saud was out six short of what would have been a richly deserved maiden Test century and Pakistan were 291 for seven at the break.
From there, with the tail exposed, the result felt inevitable. Not even Abrar Ahmed, 11 wickets to his name on debut, could change this, Jimmy Anderson dowsing his plucky 17, Wood uprooting Zahid Mahmood’s off stump and Ollie Robinson nicking off last man Mohammad Ali.
Perhaps it was fitting that Robinson should inflict the coup de grace, his own transformation from last winter’s unfit passenger in keeping with the team at large. The 29-year-old was used sparingly in this Test, sending down 19.1 overs, but his cheap removals of Babar Azam in both innings were pivotal.
Averaging 17 with the ball this year, and now delivering overseas through a remarkable ability to move the older ball sideways, England have a serious bowler on their hands.
It was Harry Brook who was named player of the match, however, and rightly so. Having kicked himself after a reckless dismissal in England’s breakneck 281 all out on day one, the Yorkshireman underlined his potential with a masterful 108 in the pivotal third innings. Stokes made a comparison with Virat Kohli here, lauding a simple technique that should be able to succeed in most conditions. A huge call, admittedly, but then who is arguing with Stokes right now?
Indeed his methods – and those of McCullum – are almost beyond reproach at this juncture. Yes, England remain a work in progress and a needless collapse of five for 19 on the third morning is one passage of play they may ponder once the dust has settled.
Jack Leach delivered the pivotal removal of Imam-ul-Haq on the third evening but it was Joe Root – proudly reaching 50 Test wickets first thing on day four when Faheem Ashraf edged to slip – who looked their most potent spinner.
But even factoring in a Pakistan side with only a handful of shining lights and who have now lost three in a row at home for the first time since 1959, England deserve the plaudits. They have hit a potentially challenging subcontinental tour with an upbeat attitude and overcome any limitations with a dynamic game plan.
A year on from that awful winter of discontent, the high performance under Stokes continues.
