- Third Test day two: England 583-8; Pakistan 24-3
- Crawley hits 267 before Jimmy Anderson takes three wickets
The England cricket team under Joe Root has rarely been renowned for its ruthlessness. They have often been highly entertaining; they have conjured some stunning victories; there have been crazy collapses and one fancy declaration. But on Saturday they clinically ground Pakistan down, allowing them no way back into the game. They amassed a mammoth total of 583 for eight, whereupon Jimmy Anderson took three Pakistan wickets at the end of an extended final session.
Look at the figures: Zak Crawley hit a monumental 267; his partnership of 359 with Jos Buttler was the record for the fifth wicket for England; perhaps most startling of all Buttler, the swashbuckler supreme, did not hit a boundary throughout the entire afternoon session. Instead he sat happily on his bat handle, after reaching his second Test century two years and 24 matches after his first, and continued to admire the silky stroke play of Crawley. Both of them played the longest innings of their careers.