England’s lead climbed to 357 as they circled a series-clinching win in the second Rothesay Test against Pakistan, but opener Emilio Gay found himself on the wrong end of some awful luck at Lord’s.
The third morning was wiped out by rain, but the game advanced in the afternoon session, with England going from 81 for three to 177 for seven as Dan Lawrence cracked an unbeaten half-century before the weather turned once again.
In fiercely difficult batting conditions, and against opponents who have yet to breach 200 on tour, Joe Root’s side may already have more than enough to establish an unassailable 2-0 lead.
But for Gay, Saturday’s play was as much a personal battle as a collective one, and it was one the left-hander lost through no fault of his own.
Striving for a significant score to quieten some of the growing questions over his suitability for Test cricket, Gay clung gamely to his wicket on the second evening only to fall lbw to a delivery that shot through unexpectedly at shin height.
The left-hander had waited almost two-and-a-half hours after the scheduled start to resume on 30 but added just one to his total before his fifth ball from Mohammad Abbas scuttled through and left him nowhere to go but back to the pavilion.
For all the debate over Gay’s position – he now averages 23.44 in nine completed innings in an admittedly taxing summer for openers – concerns are also on the rise over the state of the surface at the home of cricket and the manner of his dismissal cannot help.
The International Cricket Council ranked the pitch as unsatisfactory for the first time against the New Zealand at the start of the summer and the battle between bat and ball has been skewed again over the past three days, with Jamie Smith’s first-innings 61 the top score on either side.
The pattern continued over the course of the 24.5 overs that were possible between showers, Pakistan seamers exacting some exaggerated movement that left wicketkeeper Mohammad Rizwan facing almost as tricky a task as the English batting unit.
Rizwan required treatment on a couple of occasions as he wore a handful of blows, but he remained willing to come up to the stumps to add to the pressure.
He was doing so when Abbas made Harry Brook his second victim of the day, the Yorkshireman unable to leave his crease to smother the jagging delivery and instead nicking behind for 34.
Smith was next to fall foul of the 36-year-old, lobbing a gentle catch to midwicket as he tried to manufacture a stroke that was never on.
It felt slightly like a phony war, with England’s advantage a towering one in the circumstances. Lawrence, who joins Gay as part of a selection conundrum when Jacob Bethell returns to fitness, ensured it kept growing.
Reasoning that outright aggression was his best way to even the odds, he found a way to turn the heat back on a bowling unit that was having plenty its own way.
As well as six fours, he struck two big sixes, the first a magnificent flowing strike over extra-cover off Mohammad Ali and the second a sweetly-struck slog-sweep off the spin of Ali Usman.
