'England must push Pakistan hard on day four in Sharjah'
Wednesday 4 November 2015 11:48, UK
England must come out fighting on day four of the third Test in Sharjah if they're to have a chance of levelling the series against Pakistan, says David Lloyd.
The home side reached 146-3 before stumps to lead by 74 runs, with Mohammad Hafeez (97no) leading the way as England's first-innings lead of 72 was erased.
Alastair Cook's team might have had a larger advantage but their last six wickets fell for 78 runs as Shoaib Malik (4-33) mopped up.
"It wasn't quite what England wanted," said Lloyd. "They needed more of a lead; 72 runs is a handy lead but then with the new ball not producing anything, we feared the worst.
"The difficulty is coping with the conditions and rotating the strike - think back to last evening when James Taylor and Jonny Bairstow were together. They rotated the strike well but Pakistan got what they wanted this morning by dismissing the pair of them.
"I thought Samit Patel played beautifully - he really did - but you can see that our boys are not used to these conditions and to have spin at them relentlessly with just a break for a quicker bowler for a few overs and then spin at you again.
"I'm not saying it's a learning curve because it's Test match cricket but they are not used to it and you've got to work out by yourself, in your own mind how to score and keep things ticking over.
"But England are still in the game. Looking forward to tomorrow they'll need to nip a couple out if they can and make it a bit difficult.
"It would have been better if the new ball and Anderson and Broad could have made in-roads with the new ball but it was a hundred partnership that settled things down for Pakistan."
Looking ahead to day four, Lloyd added: "England should get a good night's sleep, a good rest and come out fighting tomorrow; if you have a never-say-die attitude and you push Pakistan as hard as you can, then you never know.
"If they can get a couple of early wickets like happened this morning to get rid of Jonny Bairstow and James Taylor then can do it. It's going to be real tough but that's why it's called Test cricket."
England seamers James Anderson (1-36 off 14 overs) and Stuart Broad (1-19 off 12 overs) again impressed with the new ball but spinners Samit Patel, Moeen Ali and Adil Rashid couldn't make further in-roads, returning combined figures of 0-90 from 27 overs.
In contrast Pakistan leg-spinner Yasir Shah swelled his tally of victims to 72 in 12 Tests, the most wickets taken by a spinner at a comparative stage of his career in the history of the game.
"The Pakistan spinners are more potent, they are more accurate than England's," said Lloyd.
"Shah looks a lovely bowler and in these conditions and on these pitches with loads of runs on the board he has exactly what you want.
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"He's going to take wickets - there's no question about that. He bowls a lot of overs. But then you push it forward to Pakistan in England and I think England will be able to take care of him.
"But out here he's accurate, he's got a leg-spinner, he's got more confident in his googly - he's a fine bowler."
Live coverage of day four of the third Test continues on Sky Sports 2 from 5.45am on Wednesday. You can also watch without a contract on NOW TV. Don't miss highlights of today's play at 5pm on Sky Sports 2, followed by The Verdict at 6pm on the same channel.
