England 657 (Brook 153, Crawley 122, Pope 108, Duckett 107) and 264 for 7 dec (Brook 87, Root 73, Crawley 50) beat Pakistan 579 (Babar 136, Imam 121, Shafique 114, Jacks 6-161) and 268 (Shakeel 76, Anderson 4-36, Robinson 4-50) by 74 runs
A win’s a win, proper? Nope. England can understandably be extremely tubthumping of their celebrations of a 74-run victory for the ages on the ultimate night of a outstanding Test towards Pakistan in Rawalpindi.
It went all the way down to the wire, with 5 wickets nonetheless wanted after tea on Monday and a fast-sinking solar making its approach ominously in the direction of the horizon.
But all of it got here all the way down to the final day – and the ultimate 90 minutes of it.
Having lastly coaxed an growing old ball to reverse after lunch, England have been vindicated of their choice to not take the brand new one which grew to become accessible three overs after tea.
With Agha Salman and Azhar Ali having settled right into a half-century stand for the fifth wicket and Pakistan needing one other 86 runs for victory within the last session, Robinson trapped Salman with out including to his tea-time rating of 30 with an inswinger that pinned him again in his crease and England overturned the preliminary not-out choice when ball-monitoring confirmed he was on track.
On the subsequent ball, Robinson was left in disbelief when his inswinger shaved the surface of Naseem Shah’s off stump a couple of third of the way in which up however the bails stayed put. It wasn’t lengthy, nevertheless, earlier than he had Azhar caught at leg slip by Joe Root making an attempt to flick one other inswinger off his hip.
Naseem rode his luck, edging Stokes between Pope and Root at first slip as he and Mohammad Ali staged vital half-an-hour value of resistance with their last-wicket stand.
Stokes lastly took the second new ball with the sunshine fading quick and it was Leach who sealed the win when he pinned Naseem on the entrance pad, the batter’s hopeful assessment solely including momentary delay to the vacationers unleashing their full-blown jubilation.
England claimed only one wicket within the morning session, that of Imam-ul-Haq, who had steadied his facet from 25 for two on the fourth day however added solely 5 to his in a single day 43 earlier than he was strangled down the leg facet by Anderson.
Anderson eliminated the harmful Rizwan on 46 with one which reversed simply sufficient and located an edge that flew by means of to Pope, ending an 87-run stand with Shakeel.
The dismissal introduced again Azhar, who had retired harm the earlier night after copping a nasty blow to the finger from Robinson. It was Robinson who struck once more when Shakeel fell after a tremendous half-century on debut. England had set attacking fields all through and Robinson snared Shakeel with a fuller ball outdoors off which hooped to brief cowl the place Keaton Jennings, substitute fielder for the injured Liam Livingstone, took a mid-air stunner leaping to his proper.
England thought Robinson had one other when he struck Salman on the pad lunging ahead, however umpire Joel Wilson’s not-out choice was upheld on assessment with the ball happening the leg facet.
If they hoped that was the breakthrough they wanted, England have been satisfied when a return to spin noticed Salman given out lbw after being struck within the midriff trying to slog-sweep Leach. But the batter overturned his dismissal when the DRS revealed the ball was going over the stumps. Compounding their woes, Robinson noticed Pope drop a tricky likelihood down the leg facet off Azhar, on 36, within the over earlier than tea.
In the tip, no possibilities or half-possibilities mattered as England’s endurance and new-discovered religion in themselves underneath Stokes and head coach Brendon McCullum received the day.
Valkerie Baynes is a normal editor at ESPNcricinfo