THE dramatic turn around on Saturday after four days of dull and dreary proceedings, where we witnessed massive first innings total by both Pakistan and England and two nerve testing double centuries, saw the first Test turned on its head in the last stages of the match before it eventually ended in a nail-biting draw.

The dramatic turnaround was mainly due to Pakistan’s unpredictable and inept batting in the second innings after England had declared after gaining a 75-run lead. Credit must be given to Captain Alistair Cook’s intelligent handling of spinners Moeen Ali and Adil Rashid, who despite their failure in the first innings, responded admirably to the challenge to bring Pakistan batsmen down on their knees.

The two not only shared seven wickets between but also gave England an outside chance to snatch victory.

This is the beauty of Test cricket which we always talk about and surely experienced it in full measure on Saturday in the dying moments of the game as England went for the jugular, chasing 99 runs to win in 19 overs.

I bet that despite losing four wickets in their quest for the target, they would have achieved that to go one up in the series had the umpires not stepped in to declare a draw due to worsening light.

And one would have not grudged England’s win because Pakistan put up a horrendous show with the bat as the wickets fell one after another.

Failure of Shan Masood, who looks a huge suspect technically as an opener and is most likely to be dropped in the second Test, a mindless run out of Mohammad Hafeez and unwarranted aggression by their most experienced batsmen contributed to the mess Pakistan found itself in.

Both Younis Khan and Misbah-ul-Haq, having dug in well, should have ensured to seal the game but both were out to uncharacteristic shots against very ordinary deliveries.

The scorecard itself tells the whole story. Only three of our batsmen were able to get into double figures as Adil Rasheed, who remained wicketless in the first innings, started to look demonic for our players.

Lucky that Pakistan will now go on into second Test unhurt, hoping for a lot better outing on a wicket which I hope would help both the batsmen and the bowlers.

Pakistan will also have to look now at changes in the team. Azhar Ali and Yasir Shah have been practicing and look set to be back to strengthen their line-up.

Published in Dawn, October 18th, 2015

On a mobile phone? Get the Dawn Mobile App: Apple Store | Google Play