England vs Pakistan: Robinson and Archer skittle visitors as hosts take 261-run lead

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0:53England's captain Ben Stokes, while he is there, England have hope.

1:02Welcome to the Sky Daily Review here on Day 2. Once again, day has come to a close with England having a lead of 261, 81 for 3. Second time around with the bat, I've got Michael Atherton and Stuart Broad alongside to talk about how Day 2 panned out. have 233 runs and 13 wickets, out of which let's start with 42 of those runs added by England's last wicket this morning, which already was looking far too many for Pakistan. Yeah, it was kind of good common sense batting this morning, really. Gus Atkinson is obviously a decent player. He's got a Test Match 100 here. Josh Tong's previous best was 18, I think.

1:43But they added about 42 in 10 overs this morning just by playing sensibly. And it just meant that England got a highly competitive score. If you think at one state, they lost four wickets in the morning session on the first day. I think they were 120 for five when Dan Lawrence got run out. So they more than double their total for the last five wickets, which is a really significant part of this game, lower order runs in a low scoring match. So that felt like a lot of runs. I know having spoken to one or two of the England players that overnight, they felt 248 was a good score for the conditions.

2:17So then they've been thrilled to get to 290. It also meant a bit of frustration for Pakistan's openers, who were hanging around when they were keen to get on with it. And of course then they had Imam's problem with the calf strain, so they had to reorder the opening partnership. So it all pointed towards the day going England's way once Tong and Atkinson added those runs. Yeah, runs probably a bit too many. Looking at Pakistan, were bundled out for far less than that in their first test up in Leeds. Now, Brody, in terms of Pakistan, what would the conversation would have been like in the England camp, having gotten the better of the Pakistan lineup and once again having bundled them out for 110?

2:56What did you make of the day for the four bowlers? England were brilliant with the ball. They utilized conditions. I was in the sort of same conversations as Michael Atherton this morning, where the England players were pretty happy in the position they were in, and knowing that their bowling attack would get as much as out the pitch as the Pakistan bowlers did on day one, but with a belief that they wouldn't bowl as many four-balls to go to the boundaries, so be able to control the rate, and it proved that way. Certainly up until lunch, was it 14 overs, 18 runs or something, just nothing that the Pakistan batters could get away.

3:31And I didn't mind, actually, the way that the Pakistan were trying to play pre-lunch, soaking up a bit of pressure, just trying to stay there, old-school test match cricket, get rid of the new ball but then you make a mistake the last ball before lunch drive at a ball that you've managed to nick and you open up an end and ultimately it's a Pakistan batting line that looks very gettable and you take Imam Ahak out of that and suddenly you've got you've almost got close to definite four tail enders that could bat anywhere in that 8, 9, 10, 11 suddenly in at 7 and you've got an end open and it all fell apart pretty quickly.

4:09So there's movement in the surface. The England bowlers got the ball in the right area more often than not and more often than the Pakistani bowlers did. So there wasn't much let up. And it didn't feel like a day there where the England bowlers had to get out of second gear particularly because there was that much movement and there wasn't that much fight from the Pakistan batting unit. I mean one who did bowl at express pace in fifth gear was Joff Raj, a pure theatre. You mentioned Oncombe, it was the fastest opening test spell here at Bowled. How much do you think England would have to look at this bowling performance, given the fact that Pucks are probably not the best batting lineup at the moment?

4:48Well, first of all, the retirement of Stokes means that the selectors had to kind of finesse the balance of their team, and that the early decision they made really was to sacrifice the spinner. They essentially said in English conditions and in fact most of the conditions apart from maybe India Bangladesh they're going to need those four fast bowlers so the sacrifice the spinner and certainly in English conditions they don't any worse for it you know they've got four proper fast bowlers or you can call Robinson fast but he's a good new ball bowler and so they look a good combination there's no let up for the batting side I thought Archer bowled outstandingly well he didn't have a lot of luck until the late wickets came.

5:32And Robinson's having an amazing return to the side, really. Two Man of the Match awards in his two tests that he's played and four more cheap wickets today. But you put it all together and there's no let-up. And really, that's been the biggest difference to me in the team so far. It's the pace and hostility and relentlessness of England's attack. Now, the conditions have been helpful and that brings the medium-paced bowlers into it. But, you know, if it swings at eight miles an hour quicker or seems at eight miles an hour quicker, which is where England's bowlers have been consistently, the three of them have been about eight miles an hour quicker than Pakistan's, then I can tell you as a batter it's tougher.

6:11If the ball moves more quickly, it's harder. And you put that in combination with a Pakistan line-up that's lacking, you know, a really kind of gun player in that line-up, somebody that the opposition would look at and say, you know, we're fearful of him, then, you know, it's all going to point one way. I mean, that's more than enough runs now, the 261 lead, you would think. Yeah, I mean, I think, I guess, the biggest worry in this is how the less amount of time Pakistan has been able to spend outside with the bat. I mean, 85.4 overs in that overall first test, 48 overs in the first innings, 37.3 in that second innings at lead, 37.2 overs in the first inning.

6:53Real concern in terms of barring 102 deliveries that Arzane Oves batted for. Well, we should say something about him. I thought he fought hard. His determination was good. He was given a real working over by Archer in that new ball spell before lunch. But, you know, I think you learn a lot about yourself. He's 21 years of age. He's not vastly experienced either in test cricket or these conditions. He will have learned a tremendous amount batting out there today. And if you've got that kind of determination and stickability and character that he showed, that can carry you a long way in the game.

7:30So well played to him.

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8:15Jordan Cox, that catch in the slip quarter. Broad, there was always conversation around slip positioning. England were exceptional, yes, with the ball, but your slip quarter and your keeper has to couple up in terms of behind the stumps. What did you make of England overall in the field? Yeah, they had good energy. They created chances. Their bowlers were on the money. And generally, when your bowlers are bowling threatening spells and you feel in the game in the field, You're more alert to chances that come your way. Harry Brook dropped a catch that he would have expected himself to catch. He's got a catch percentage in Test cricket of over 85%, which is very high.

8:51So he would have been disappointed to drop that one chance. But other than that, it was good chance-taking, I suppose, from England. They were relentless with the ball. And I think there's always that conversation within Test match teams is you don't want to have to take 25 wickets. You can't afford to create that many chances and you don't want to. And it's about creating good habits in test matches. These aren't overly testing test matches for England at the moment. It's a series that they'd expect to win 3-0 even before the series started. Conditions have suited them absolutely perfectly. But it means you've got to push and test yourself in other ways and that will be making sure they try and take every single chance available to them.

9:36They probably can create 30 chances in a test match against this batting unit, but they want to only try and create 21-22 and make sure they take those chances. Yeah, England 290 in their first innings. Pakistan bowled out for 110. We've spoken about Azaan Oves. Did it feel like Pakistan was slightly timid in the approach? As in, yes, relentless bowling, and they had to wait out a significant period, as Azaan did for 42 in his 102 odd deliveries. the rest of them hardly faced 100 delivery the top six at least yeah I mean you know the conditions were tricky and England were bowling really well I don't think it was easy at all I don't think any batting team would have found that easy and then you put that in combination with a team that a has not got an opener because he's injured so they're about batsmen down as I said they've you know you look at the lineup and you don't think they're gonna worry you they can't put pressure back on you.

10:32But I don't think anybody would have found that easy today against that attack in those conditions. But you've got to try and find a way of staying competitive in the game. To give away a first innings lead of 180, I'm afraid that's the game done there and then unless a miracle happens. And I don't think that's going to happen. You talk about experiences. Sean, 48 tests. Abdullah Shafiq, 26. Babur, by far the most experienced, 64 tests. And Mohamed Rizwan, 46. But struggling. England come out to bat in that second innings, lose a couple of early wickets. Ben Duckett, you probably imagine, Pakistan got a freebie there.

11:07Yeah, I mean, there's not too much to be picky of England's performance, but that was one. It was a poor dismissal, curious dismissal, really, just early on, hit it straight to mid-off. It's not the kind of dismissal you see very often in test cricket. Brodie mentioned Brook's catch that he puts down, good slipper, put one down. Josh Tong sent one amazingly wide ball down the leg side for five wides. And they were just a little bit off with the ball for about a 20-minute period after lunch. But other than that, you couldn't really be too picky. I mean, you know, people talk about Root's LBW just because that's an emerging pattern, if you like.

11:44Nine LBs now in the last dozen innings. But it was a pretty good ball. I mean, the ball before he wandered down the pitch to Mahmoud Ali, it zipped and bounced, and the next one nipped in and, you know, cannoned into his shin. So, although it is a bit of a pattern, I don't think he could do much about it. Brody, there's always room for improvement. There was periods of pressure that Pakistan did apply with the ball. What did you make of in terms of discipline? Approach was better. Mohamed Abbas, you spoke about it. You and I were in common when we talked about him. But he needed support at the other end.

12:19Did you see rooms of improvement from Mohamed Ali and Khuram Shazad? Yeah. You know, they're into the second test match, the second innings. of that so they've bowled overs now they're used to the conditions here in England it's incredibly difficult when you've bowled day one of a test match and then you come back the next morning and you bowl a spell each you only get 30 odd overs off and you're back in the field again it's quite daunting for the body you don't know where that's ending we don't know what the weather's like tomorrow but England could back till day four if they wanted to if they really booked in so it would be one of those where you really have to fire the body up and you want to try and make early breakthroughs because you've got to go and get 10 wickets or seven wickets now to get off that field.

13:07But I think they bowled nicely this evening. They moved the ball. They could have had Harry first ball saved by an inside edge. But it's so difficult when you bowl in the morning and you're back out there against the best batters, the top order batters, you very rarely see a team get bowled out very cheaply in that scenario because bowlers just aren't hitting the pitch quite as hard. I thought some of the tactics were a bit curious. I couldn't understand why Rizwan wouldn't have been up to the stumps to Root. I know he got the LBW in the end with him not being up to the stumps, but there's been a real trend to Joe Root, Harry Brook, trapping them in the crease and getting them LBW.

13:51and it's not like any of their bowlers have got the pace to be stood back. And actually, even to Emilio Guevara, he nicked a ball later on in the day that doesn't carry. If you're up to the stumps, yes, it was maybe a big enough nick to miss your gloves, or it could hit you on the leg and go up in the air, you don't know. I'm not seeing a huge amount of advantage, not like they're using the short ball anyway. I'm not seeing a huge amount of, enough advantage to standing back to any of these three seamers at the moment. So I'd be surprised tomorrow if we didn't see the keeper up to the stumps a lot more.

14:21And hard work will continue for the Pakistani bowlers. 66.4 overs, they bowled in that first innings. And just after 37.2 of their batters, they were out there again. Lastly, just one thing that did happen was a lot of reviews today. 11 of them, six overturned. Absolutely. And, yeah, I had a bit of sympathy for the umpires because a lot of them, at first look, I was on commentary for two or three of them. and at first look you think that's going over. And it's Paul Reifle, I think, had four overturned, didn't he? And I think that's a little bit around the difficulty of playing here, that if there's sideways movement, because the pitch is quite slow, it allows even tall bowlers like Brodie, say, or Ollie Robinson, you can hit the stump still from even a shortish length.

15:08The batters were on the back foot, so the length was quite short. On a harder, quicker pitch, that's going to go over the top. So that combination of sideways movement and a bit of slowness in the surface actually gives the bowlers more margin for length that they can still hit the stumps. So I had a bit of sympathy for the umpires. Three out of those many were for the shortest of the three batters out there, Ben Ducat, Saoud Shaqeel and Mohamed Rezwan. Well, on that note, England 81 for three with the lead, a commanding one that of 261. We see you tomorrow.