England dominate Pakistan despite rain interruptions
Rain, not resistance, kept England from wrapping up the summer in two days at Edgbaston.
By the time the weather closed in for good at 17:07, Pakistan were 52-2 in their second innings, still 268 runs short of making England bat again and clinging on more in hope than expectation. With extra time available, play could have stretched to 19:00. It never got close. The clouds did what Pakistan’s batters have not managed all series: they stopped England.
On Friday, barring a miracle and a monsoon, Joe Root’s side will complete a 3-0 clean sweep.
England turn the screw
The match was effectively decided long before the rain arrived. England began the second day on 156-4, already 23 ahead and with Pakistan’s first-innings 133 looking painfully thin. From there, the home side simply pulled away.
Harry Brook set the tone. He resumed positively and moved to 75, busy between the wickets and ruthless on anything loose. His partnership of 86 with Dan Lawrence was the heartbeat of the morning, Lawrence the one pressing hardest, skipping down, driving, hustling singles.
Then came the lapse. Brook called for a sharp single to mid-wicket that never needed to be taken and was run out at the non-striker’s end. A needless dismissal, and another England batter stranded short of a hundred.
Lawrence, though, kept going. Recalled at the start of this series, he has quietly stacked three half-centuries in three Tests, this one a composed 65. He looked set, balanced, in control. Then, on 65, came the thud of wood on wood as he chopped Mohammad Imran onto his stumps. Lawrence let out an audible cry; 17 Tests in and the wait for a maiden century stretches on, but his ticket to South Africa in December looks all but booked.
Jamie Smith joined in the run-making. After a bruising Ashes tour, this summer has brought hints of a reset with bat and gloves. At Edgbaston, a ground where he has prospered before, he muscled 69, especially strong through the leg side. Just as he seemed ready to push on, he pushed too gently, offering Razaullah a simple return catch.
By then, though, England were already out of sight.
Robinson’s purple patch
If the batters shared the runs, Ollie Robinson owned the mood of the day.
With the bat, he played as if the series was his stage. He swung hard through the leg side, launching a massive six into the Hollies Stand and racing to a second Test fifty. The first had come in Ranchi in 2024, just before he was dropped. This one underlined how dramatically his stock has risen since his recall. From fringe option to indispensable in a matter of months.
He finished with 50, part of a lower-order surge that also featured Jofra Archer’s reminder of his hitting power. Archer heaved two sixes of his own and walked off unbeaten on 32 when Josh Tongue edged behind as the last man out. England closed on 453, a lead of 320 and a scoreboard that bordered on cruel.
The only blemish? No century. Ben Duckett’s hundred against New Zealand at Trent Bridge will stand alone as England’s only ton of a six-Test home summer. For a side that has dominated Pakistan so completely, it is a curious statistic. Brook, Lawrence, Smith – all close, none over the line.
Root’s England show a harder edge
The numbers tell one story. The manner of it tells another.
Under Ben Stokes and Brendon McCullum, England changed the way they played but struggled to close out series. They lost the final Test in each of their previous six rubbers, some of their flattest cricket arriving when the pressure was supposedly off – dead games against Sri Lanka at home in 2024, New Zealand away later that year.
Stokes often bristled at the word “ruthless”. Too often, his side backed that up with performances that drifted.
Root’s second spell in charge is starting to look different. The opposition is poor – Stokes’ England would have hammered this Pakistan team as well – and the conditions fell kindly on Thursday, blue skies for batting, heavy skies for bowling. But the way England have gone about this final Test has a colder edge to it.
The batting tempo has been measured, not manic. They have picked their moments, absorbed when needed, attacked when it hurt most. The second day’s accumulation – stretching the lead, suffocating Pakistan without chasing landmarks – felt like the work of a side more interested in control than spectacle.
And with the ball, they have a spearhead in the form of his life.
Two balls, two wickets, and a race against time
Pakistan’s second innings began after tea, one session to chase a slice of history: the first Test in England to finish inside two days since 2000. With Jordan Cox keeping wicket in place of the bruised-fingered Smith, Robinson took the new ball and immediately lit up the ground.
First ball. Saim Ayub, no need to play, but he did. Edge. Brook at second slip accepted it. 0-1.
Same over. Abdullah Shafique, bat coming down crooked, another edge, this time to Root at first slip. 0-2. Robinson 2-0. The two-day finish was suddenly not a fantasy but a live, snarling prospect.
The Hollies Stand roared. Pakistan, who have not passed 200 or lasted more than 51 overs in an innings all series, looked ripe for another collapse. England swarmed, the light dimmed, and every play-and-miss felt like a countdown.
Azan Awais and Shan Masood, to their credit, dug in. They survived 12 overs in the gloom, Masood offering one tough chance that Duckett could not cling on to at third slip off Gus Atkinson. By then, the rain had begun its own assault.
The showers came once, went, then came back heavier. Covers on, covers off, umpires peering at light meters and radar. The clock ticked towards that 19:00 cut-off and, eventually, past the point of no return. At 52-2, Pakistan were spared more punishment. For a day, at least.
The margin remains vast, the gap in class just as wide. England will arrive on Friday with a new ball still relatively hard, a bowler on a hot streak, and a chance to finish a home summer that has lacked centuries but not authority.
The only real question left is not whether they win, but how quickly they decide to end it.
