The floodlights had been burning at Headingley since the covers came off, and for most of a rain-shortened second day they illuminated nothing but Pakistan’s problems. Then, with barely half an hour of play remaining, Ali Usman skidded an arm-ball through Harry Brook’s defences and clipped the stumps. Two balls later, the left-arm spinner had two more. It was the passage of play Pakistan had waited two days for, and it arrived long after the first Test had drifted beyond their reach.
ESPNcricinfo’s scorecard tells the story plainly enough: England 366 for 8 (Brook 91, Cox 73, Root 66, Lawrence 51, Usman 5-92), a lead of 195 over Pakistan’s first-innings 171. Usman’s figures represent a maiden Test five-wicket haul and, in the context of a tourist’s afternoon spent chasing the game, the only line in the book that Pakistan will want to keep.
Ali Usman Five Wickets — And The Stand That Got Away
The frustration is that Pakistan had the conditions to do far more. Rain wiped out the first session and a half, and when the players finally emerged beneath dark grey skies the ball nipped around sharply, drawing a run of plays and misses. Those lines were not sustained. Joe Root and Jordan Cox, resuming a budding overnight partnership, were allowed to build it into a commanding stand of 150, and by the close of a 57-over day England had scored at 4.46 an over.
Usman, once introduced, at least offered control, and by the final half-hour he felt the pitch beginning to help him. Dan Lawrence went first, miscuing a sweep straight up in the air. Then came Brook, deep in his crease and beaten for pace off the surface. Gus Atkinson and Ollie Robinson followed in successive balls, as BBC Sport’s highlights show, and Pakistan finally had a spell to their name.
A Headingley rarity, and the wicket worth savouring
The five-for carries genuine historical weight. ESPNcricinfo’s Andrew Miller noted that Usman is the first visiting spinner to claim a Test five-wicket haul at Headingley since Australia’s Ashley Mallett in the 1972 Ashes — a reminder of how rarely slow bowling from overseas has prospered in Leeds.
The Brook dismissal was the one Usman most wanted. England’s Test vice-captain averages 84.72 against Pakistan and has scored more runs against them than any other opponent, and he had already been dropped on one before making 91 from 93 balls.
“I wanted to bowl within the stumps,” Usman said, in remarks reported by ESPNcricinfo. “If they got even a bit of room, they were scoring runs. Dan Lawrence was struggling a bit against spin. But Harry Brook uses his feet very well, so he was harder to bowl to. That’s how I ended up taking the wicket I did.”
‘Not up to standard’ — Usman’s own verdict
There was no attempt to dress up the day. Asked about Pakistan’s bowling, Usman took his share of the blame for a collective failure. “Our bowling was not up to standard today, including myself,” he said. “I took five wickets but we’ve given away too many runs as a bowling unit. We’ll work on our mistakes and try not to repeat them.”
His prescription for the rest of the match is positive intent with the bat when the second innings comes around — a tall order given England still had two wickets in hand and a lead already close to 200. Pakistan’s bowlers had produced a tidier effort on day one, when Josh Tongue and Ollie Robinson shared ten wickets to bowl the tourists out for 171 and set the tone for the contest.
For England, the day’s other statistical curiosity belonged to their captain: Root’s 66 left him level with Sachin Tendulkar on 68 Test scores between 50 and 99, according to ESPNcricinfo, an innings that ended with a 42nd Test century in view. Brook, meanwhile, is still waiting for a hundred on his home ground — the subject of our report on his 91.
Under those same floodlights on day three, Usman will want the ball early. On the evidence of a soggy Thursday, he is the only Pakistan bowler this surface looks prepared to reward.
