Well a day of mixed fortunes. Crawley was just magnificent, imperious of both back and front foot, wise in shot choice. Tall men mostly and they don't come a lot bigger than 6'5" make great players, but this young man is different, he sees the ball so early too. I did want him in earlier you may remember because his shot organisation and discipline was so good. He reminds me of Ted Dexter and they don't come much better to the eye than that.
Root has lost the plot, his shot choice is chaotic. He insists on trying to chop the legger square when he doesn't have the space! This is becoming a real flaw, at the moment he's not worth selecting.
Burns simply just doesn't have the technique at this level and that's it. The Pakistani's - especially Abbas are craftsmen as seamers, compared to the raw labour of their West Indian counterparts. It's not pace that matters as much as late movement. The aforementioned also sometimes bowls off the back foot, (Mike Procter) which is probably disconcerting. He's a wonderful bowler ably supported when they can 'dictate' by Shaheen and Naseem. Yesterday Crawley knocked them all off length and line. The latter two in particular. When Burns took strike I thought here comes another streaky single figure innings, you can just see it coming?
Sibley again LBW but he's trying hard to improve and he got a brute of a ball, as did Pope.
I've saved the best for last. As you two know I rate Buttler as the best natural striker in the team (including Sir Ben). Yesterday he was sublime, one cover drive in particular was worth waiting all day for. If ever an angel could bat the almighty would say, watch this and try to be as good.
I think its immaterial (apart from records and confidence) as to the final score. Pakistan only have three seamers, we have four and anything over 400 could see an innings win. Their dejected and it shows.