TOP SPIN AT THE TEST: England are scoring at their highest rate ever against Bangledesh with 6.73 runs an over but match remains finely poised
- England’s first Test against Pakistan is set for a grandstand conclusion
- Ben Stokes declared early to leave the hosts needing 343 from about 100 overs
- Batter Harry Brook missed out on scoring England’s fastest ever red ball century
- Zak Crawley and Joe Root also made half centuries on a difficult pitch to bowl on
England have scored at 6.73 runs an over in this Test, their fastest ever, beating 573 against Bangladesh at Chester-le-Street in 2005.
Their aggregate of 921 runs is their fourth-highest.
Of batsmen to have scored at least 200 runs in a Test match, Harry Brook’s strike-rate of 132 is the highest, pipping Nathan Astle’s 131 for New Zealand against England at Christchurch in 2001-02.
Brook became the second England player to score two fifties in a Test at better than a run a ball. The first was Zak Crawley – earlier in the day.
Crawley now has two hundreds and two fifties in his four Test innings against Pakistan, bringing him 492 runs at 123. Against everyone else, it’s 1,043 at 21.
Pakistan leg-spinner Zahid Mahmood ended up conceding 319 runs in the Test. Among debutants, only Australian off-spinner Jason Krejza went for more: 358 against India at Nagpur in 2008-09. Krejza, though, went at 4.78 an over to Mahmood’s 7.25.
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