HARRY IS IN A HURRY BEFORE PAKISTAN SETTLE IN

England attack toils on flat track after Brook breaks Beefy’s record

FIRST utopia, then terra firma. After England’s batters smashed their highest score in Asia at a speed unprecedented in Test history, their bowlers were reacquainted with the reality of life in this part of the world.

Replying to England’s 657, Abdullah Shafique and Imam-ul-Haq took Pakistan to 181 without loss at stumps on the second day, and looked as untroubled as Imam’s uncle Inzamam once did while watching team-mates train from the comfort of his wicker chair.

England did not bowl badly, but Shafique, who reached the close on 89, and Imam, who had 90, regard this sleepy Rawalpindi surface as a second home. In March here against Australia, they shared opening stands of 105 and an unbroken 252. This, then, was par for the course.

Whether it was any good for Test cricket was another matter. England’s first-day romp had been entertaining enough to defer too many awkward questions about the surface. And with Harry Brook extending his overnight 101 into a blistering 153 off 116 balls, there was plenty to enjoy.

But Pakistan were never likely to bat in the same manner, nor were they obliged to. There is a game to save; hospitality can go only so far. Shafique and Imam duly batted at a traditional tempo, and emerged unscathed from the few moments that discomfited them.

In the first over after lunch, Imam appeared to edge Jack Leach as he pushed forward on 11, but Ollie Pope — keeping because Ben Foakes had failed to recover from the bug that threatened to delay the start of the Test — could not cling on. It is possible the spike on Ultra Edge was bat brushing pad, but England’s reaction suggested bat on ball. Either way, Pope’s fallibility was a reminder of what they had lost.

Then, in the first over after tea, Jimmy Anderson thought he had his 668th Test wicket, and first in Pakistan. Shafique, on 54, fended at one down the leg side, and Pope pulled off what looked like a stunning catch low to his left.

On-field umpires Ahsan Raza and Joel Wilson conferred and gave a soft signal of out. To England’s dismay, TV official Marais Erasmus ruled — rightly — that the ball had bounced just before entering Pope’s gloves.

Moments later, Shafique clipped Leach straight at sub fielder Keaton Jennings at short leg, but he was unable to hold the catch. Chances are like gold dust in these conditions, and England could not convert any.

All the while, Ramiz Raja, the chairman of the Pakistan board, was telling anyone who would listen up in the media centre that the pitch was not worth the rolled mud it had been prepared with.

It is not that Pakistani groundsmen are not capable of producing balanced surfaces. It is just that this one belonged in an entirely different category.

Throw in that Australia game, and the last seven days of Test cricket at Rawalpindi have produced 2,025 runs for the loss of 24 wickets. And several of those were donated by England.

All told, Pakistan proceeded almost half as slowly as their opponents — at 3.29 an over to 6.50, which made England the first team to score more quickly than a run a ball in the first innings of a Test. Every day, some new page of the record books is redrafted. It did not stop there. On Thursday, Brook had become the first for his country to hit six fours in a Test over, cheerfully taking toll of some friendly fare from Saud Shakeel.

That also equalled Ian Botham’s national record for most runs in a Test over, and now Brook claimed the mark for himself, hitting 27 off Pakistan’s hapless leg-spinner Zahid Mahmood: a six followed by three fours, a six and a three. This, remember, was his second Test innings.

The 23-year-old is a talent, all right, and England fans are in for some fun over the next decade.

None of his team-mates, though, could match his sustained assault as Ben Stokes’s side resumed on 506 for four. They had 700 in mind, if not quite the thousand Zak Crawley had joked about, but lost Stokes in the first over, bowled by Naseem Shah after hitting his first ball of the day down the ground for six.

Liam Livingstone’s third scoring shot in Test cricket was six, too, but he soon perished to the man at deep midwicket, and later jarred his knee in the outfield, preventing him from bowling.

Will Jacks, England’s other debutant, played some classy strokes for 30, and Ollie Robinson hit 37, his best Test innings since making his debut two summers ago. At the end of it all, 657 in 101 overs was little short of sensational. But as the bowlers struggled to make any impression on Pakistan’s openers, to the delight of a Friday crowd of around 8,000, it was tempting to wonder whether they had got the balance of their side wrong.

With reverse-swing the likeliest source of a breakthrough, the pace of Jamie Overton might have been useful. Instead, Jacks — his Surrey colleague — hustled through 12 overs of mainly harmless off-spin.

Leach bowled with control, but Joe Root got through only four overs, and the day drew to a close with the familiar sight of Stokes charging in to bowl bouncers.

If England prise out 20 wickets from here, it will be the captain’s greatest achievement yet.