For the second time in two days of this extraordinary Test, a straight hit for four by a Yorkshireman brought up an all-time historic moment for English cricket.
On Wednesday, Sheffield’s Joe Root had overtaken Alastair Cook’s England-record Test tally with a pristine straight-drive off Aamer Jamal. Now, Harry Brook – born 50 miles north in Keighley – reached England’s sixth triple-century, and first since Graham Gooch 34 years ago, with a hearty thwack off spinner Saim Ayub, setting his team on the path to what looked like becoming a remarkable win.
Brook removed his helmet, acknowledged the acclaim of his team-mates and the small group of England fans up in the Inzamam-ul-Haq Enclosure, and glanced skywards, thinking of his grandma, Pauline, whose death earlier in the year meant he missed the series in India. It seems hard to imagine this team without him now.
Root had already gone for a career-best 262, but not before he and Brook – master and apprentice – had taken an epic stand to 454, breaking the 67-year-old national record set by Peter May and Colin Cowdrey against West Indies at Edgbaston.
May and Cowdrey had eaten up 191 overs to add their 411 back in 1957, famously using their pads to nullify the spin of Sonny Ramadhin and Alf Valentine.
Harry Brook’s stunning 317 helped put England in a strong position before declaring on 823 for seven
England took six quick wickets after putting Pakistan back in to bat and are now on the cusp of victory
Joe Root and Brook broke the 67-year-old national record set by Peter May and Colin Cowdrey to put on a staggering 454-run stand
Root and Brook needed only 86.3 overs, and made brutal use of their bats as England tore chunks off Pakistan’s first-innings 556 in an audacious bid to set up a shot at victory. If they wrap this up on Friday, as they should, it will rank alongside their win at Rawalpindi two years ago, when Pakistan began with 579 and lost as the sun set on the final evening.
By the time Ollie Pope declared half an hour before tea on the fourth day, England had racked up 823 for seven, the fourth-highest Test total. And they had done it at 5.48 an over. Previous England teams would have been battling for a draw. Not this lot. Truly, Bazball is the gift that keeps on giving, whatever its humourless critics say.
And when Chris Woakes – the only member of this XI to be alive when Gooch made his 333 at Lord’s against India in 1990 – knocked back Abdullah Shafique’s off stump with the first ball of Pakistan’s second innings, snaking one that one kept low back through the gate, England began to believe.
That feeling gathered momentum during a chaotic final session in which their seamers hunted as a pack, and Pakistan’s batsmen seemed powerless to resist.
Shan Masood, their captain and first-innings centurion, ended a skittish innings of 11 with a chip to midwicket off Gus Atkinson, who then bagged the big one, Babar Azam fending to Jamie Smith for five to complete a miserable game that included dropping Root at midwicket on 186.
The ball after Babar’s dismissal, the first from Brydon Carse, Ayub aimed a horror swipe, and was well held by Ben Duckett, sore finger and all, as he ran back from mid-off. Carse, growing in stature in his debut Test, then bowled Mohammad Rizwan – another senior Pakistani player who has gone missing in this Test – and it was 82 for six when Saud Shakil edged Jack Leach’s second ball into Smith’s gloves.
Had Shoaib Bashir not dropped Jamal at long leg off Carse with half an hour to go, England might already be celebrating victory. Instead, Jamal and Salman Agha resisted until stumps, with Pakistan 152 for six, still 115 short of avoiding an innings defeat. It felt like little more than a delay of the inevitable.
But just as the third day of this Test belonged to Root, the fourth was Brook’s. And how. He began on 141, having already put to bed a modest Test summer, and soon followed his partner to 200 – Root’s sixth, Brook’s first. It will not be his last.
Brook’s smashing innings was his first 200 in Test cricket, though it will surely not be his last
It was a nightmare start to Pakistan’s retort after opener Abdullah Shafique was bowled for a duck
Spinner Jack Leach picked up the wicket of Saud Shakil with his second bowl of the innings
After lunch, Brook stepped on it, hammering 42 while Root added just three before he was trapped by a shooter from Ayub. The scoreboard read 703 for four: not a mirage in the Multan heat, but proof of England’s boldness.
The Brook of a year ago might not have been able to play this innings. Less fit, more feckless, he was in danger of squandering his natural gifts during a home series against Sri Lanka which brought a lone half-century and more than one self-combustion.
When he appeared to get bored against the Sri Lankans’ wide-of-off-stump line at The Oval, it felt as if the greatest obstacle to Brook’s fulfilment might be Brook himself. In that respect, Root was the perfect ally, cajoling him in oven-like temperatures and keeping him honest when it might have been easier to throw it away.
Root’s demise did not distract him. Six over extra cover off Naseem Shah took Brook to 290, and he was soon slapping Ayub down the ground to bring up 300 from just 310 balls. Only India’s Virender Sehwag has made a faster Test triple.
The rate of Brook’s progress was breathtaking. While Root had batted a minute over 10 hours for 262, Brook needed two minutes under eight for 317, before top-edging a sweep off Ayub to short fine leg.
Having celebrated his triple with a glance to the skies, he walked off to the congratulations of the Pakistan fielders, and the applause of the England dressing-room. He might also have been walking towards the next phase of his Test career.
Despite a century in the first innings, Pakistan skipper Shan Masood was skittish before being dismissed for 11
There was a great show of sportsmanship as Root had his hand shaken by every member of the Pakistan team
Root was visibly incensed after being trapped lbw by Pakistan spinner Aghe Sulman
Smith cracked a quick 31, and when Carse battered his second ball over extra cover for six, England had their first total of 800 in a non-timeless Test. The six Pakistani bowlers who conceded over 100 included spinner Abrar Ahmed, who spent the day in hospital with a fever.
Brook didn’t always look comfortable either, but there is a new resolve to England’s next great batsman, a sense of greater things to come. Even on a day like this, it was as exciting a thought as any.
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