Pakistan v England Second Test Report Card, Day Four
Featuring throwing one's bat away
Throwing One’s Bat Away
Grade: A+
England played the final day of this Test as if they needed a miracle to score the remaining required runs on this nine-day-old pitch. Like Skynet Roombas, the England batters could not be prevented from sweeping, either normally or in reverse, playing the shot (and falling to the shot) as Noman Ali ran rampant (and, even more concerningly for England, spun rampant).
The frenetic sweeping seemed an overreaction. If you think about it, the pitch was just a baby. How threatening, really, is a nine-day-old? Sure, in America, an infant that age might be armed with a Glock 19 semi-auto pistol. But in most other parts of the world, nine-day-olds are trivial to defeat in a fight. They’re no danger to anybody.
Yet England gave up all hope in the face of this pre-toddler pitch. None more so than Ben Stokes who quite literally threw his bat away.
A great moment. Just when you think this thrilling England side has nothing more to offer, they give you the glorious sight of Stokes hurling his bat to square leg as he advances down the pitch to miss a wonderfully wild slog. Beautiful. A magnificent attempt to reclaim the mantle of ‘funniest stumping of the Bazball era’.
And so it was, that Pakistan, predictably, bounced back from their nadir last week to a comfortable win in this one. Multiple innings timeless Test cricket matches? You’re hearing it more and more (particularly in Pakistan).