Chris Woakes claims Alastair Cook and Alex Hales, in wiping off a first-innings deficit of 103 and putting England 17 runs ahead without losing a wicket, have given the dressing room a renewed belief that they can now press for victory in the third Test.
The unbroken stand of 120 on the evening of the third day was the first century partnership by an England opening pair in 23 innings and came at an important time in the series, with Pakistan very much in the ascendancy after being bowled out for 400, in reply to the home side’s 297, and inflicting five sessions of toil on their attack.
“It was a really important partnership for us as a team and for them as an opening partnership,” said Woakes, who earlier claimed figures of three for 79. “We went into it behind the eight-ball and in any game of cricket 100 behind is a quite decent margin. But for them to cancel it out and look so solid was great for the team.”
“There’s a lot of cricket left to play and looking too far ahead would be silly as we’re only 17 runs ahead. But it gives us a great chance of setting up this Test. Having 10 wickets in hand is crucial. Get through the tricky period in the morning and we can kick on and get a good lead. Hopefully that then leaves us enough time to bowl them out.”
Cook, who will resume in the morning unbeaten on 64 alongside Hales on 50, went past Kevin Pietersen’s record of 13,779 across all three formats for England, with Woakes praising the England captain for leading from the front and putting an earlier dropped catch off the bowling of the wicketless Steven Finn behind him.
“He always does that and has,” said Woakes. “And his record stands for itself. Opening the batting is crucial to the team doing well and he’s so mentally strong, a dropped catch isn’t going affect him too much. To sit not out overnight is great for him and puts the team into a really strong position.”
Woakes, who has become the first England bowler other than Jimmy Anderson, Stuart Broad and Graeme Swann to claim 20 wickets in a series since Ryan Sidebottom in 2008 and has taken 21 at present, conceded the pitch at his home ground does tend to hold together, though a day of sunshine could see cracks possibly appear.
Anderson picked up figures of two for 54 but endured another day of frustration and, though he avoided any punishment for showing dissent on the second day, the 34-year-old was removed from the attack in his 30th over by the umpire Joel Wilson following a third instance of running on the pitch during Pakistan’s innings. “He was striving hard for the team and it was unfortunate,” said Woakes. “The umpires said he was running on and stuck to their guns but it didn’t hurt us too much as a team. We bowled well as a unit and a word for Finn, who steamed in, bowled well and didn’t get any rewards.”
The pressure now switches over to Pakistan’s four-man attack, with their head coach, Mickey Arthur, disappointed with their efforts and voicing concern over the right-armer Sohail Khan, who looked down on pace following his five-wicket haul in the first innings “It is a real concern,” said Arthur. “He’s got to back up. I thought he bowled exceptionally well in the first innings but the key is you’ve got to do it both innings, you’ve got to do it spell after spell. That’s something we’ll continue to work on with him.
“We were OK up until the last session, then we were poor. I was just really disappointed. Everything we’ve spoken about – lengths, bowling one side of the wicket, our plans and controlling the run rate – we didn’t do one of those in the last session, so that was particularly disappointing.”
