On a dream pitch but in nightmare conditions Joe Root fought cramp, fatigue and the danger of dehydration across an entire day at the crease to take a joyful, painful stride into history. Of the three things the 33-year-old had to worry about – the heat, his body, and his opponents – the last of these were by some margin the least vexing on his way to overtaking Alastair Cook to become England’s all-time leading run-scorer, and helping his team make Pakistan’s once daunting first-innings total appear undercooked. By the close they stood on 492 for three, trailing by 64, Root was on 176 – with Harry Brook not far behind on 141 – and the question had gone from whether he would score a century to how many he might like.
Towards the end Root could barely limp, let alone run, and having been on the field for all but eight balls of a match played in often sweltering temperatures – he has spent eight hours and one minute at the crease already – his discomfort was hardly surprising. This was one of those steamy days when the sweetest thing about reaching triple figures might just have been the opportunity to take off his helmet for a while.
When he was on 86 he tried to sweep Abrar Ahmed and as he did so his right leg cramped, sending him hopping backwards in pain. Mohammad Rizwan threatened to stump him at this point, the kind of wicketkeeping behaviour that would send the Long Room at Lord’s into seething apoplexy, but even in his agony Root did not offer his opponents an opening. The closest Pakistan came to dismissing him was via a review for lbw that was umpire’s call on height, by which time he was on 168.
Along the way he compiled partnerships of 109 with Zak Crawley, 136 with Ben Duckett and an unbeaten 243 with Brook. But for all England’s success it was hard to criticise the bowlers, who ran in gamely but vainly and – as the tourists had been over the first two days – were simply cursed to labour on a surface that is unhelpful to the point of being sadistic.
Earlier this year Root mocked Brook for referring to him as “grandad” but it almost seemed appropriate as he hauled himself up to the dressing room at tea, 119 runs and 187 balls into his innings, using his bat as a makeshift walking stick while his fellow Yorkshireman disappeared ahead of him, vaulting the steps two at a time. But youth is no shield from these conditions, and three overs and only 15 minutes after the restart Brook was lying flat on the ground while the physio worked on a cramped right leg.
That was as close to discomfort as Brook seems to have felt in a country where his record now verges on the ridiculous. This is England’s second Test tour of Pakistan in two years, but if the 25-year-old keeps up this kind of behaviour he might not be invited back for a while. This is his sixth innings here and he has only once failed to score at least a half century, with four of his six Test tons accrued here. This may be a welcoming and hospitable nation but Brook is getting dangerously close to taking liberties.
Long before the end in their search for wickets Pakistan were relying on freaks and accidents, but even they did not come to their aid. When Brook was on 75 he defended a ball from Aamir Jamal that bounced into the ground, up off his chin and from there back down and into the stumps, but by that point even the bails were too knackered to move.
The day had started with Crawley in sublime touch, as he had been on Tuesday evening, and he had scored 78 off 85, including 13 fours, when he guided an innocuous delivery from Shaheen Shah Afridi straight to Aamir at short midwicket. The dismissal continued a remarkable record for Crawley, who since he scored 189 against Australia at Old Trafford last summer has got into the 70s six times without ever making it out again. In his Test career he has now been dismissed for scores of 73, 73, 76, 76, 76, 77, 78 and 79, and then nothing between that and 121.
His departure brought out Duckett, who had caused such concern when leaving the field the previous day nursing an apparently dislocated left thumb but eased it again by turning up on Wednesday morning to join the squad’s customary game of pig on the outfield before play. For a man whose participation had been in doubt he batted with ludicrous comfort, tucking into the spin of Ahmed with particular greed. He scored at such pace that although Root was on 34 when he came to the crease, and added a far from sluggish 30 off his next 37 balls, it was at that point that Duckett hit a thick edge over slip and away for four to overtake him. He had accumulated 84 off 75 when Aamir trapped him lbw and Root made his one poor decision of the day in advising him to review.
Despite two ducks and three single-digit scores, by the end of the third day the average batter in this match had scored 78.53. Never in the past 100 Test matches, going back two and a half years, has the average exceeded 60. It is the kind of surface that makes results much less likely than records, and there might be a few of those still to come.
