England Tighten Grip on Series as Pakistan Struggles
By the time the sun finally pushed through the grey over Edgbaston, the contest – and really the series – already felt settled. England’s bowlers, led again by the relentless Ollie Robinson and the returning menace of Jofra Archer, set about the final act of a mismatch that has grown more one-sided by the hour.
Pakistan began the day on 52 for two, still 268 runs shy of making England bat again. By the 19th over they had inched to 67 for two, Azan Awais on 32, Shan Masood on 29, the scoreboard moving more out of obligation than conviction. The ball grew older, the sun warmed the surface, and yet the sense remained: this was survival, not a chase.
Robinson and Archer turn the screw
Robinson, whose summer figures already belong to another age – 28 wickets at 7.75 – resumed with the same suffocating discipline that has defined his season. From over the wicket to Azan in the 14th, he beat the outside edge three times in one maiden, then switched around the wicket for the final ball, just to remind the left-hander there was no safe angle. It was the sort of over bowlers dine out on for decades. His grandchildren will hear plenty about the summer of 2026.
He stayed around the wicket in the 16th, forcing Azan to play from awkward positions. A few solid defensive strokes, then a misjudged pull at a ball that leapt down the leg side, racing away for four byes with Jordan Cox standing up and helpless. The over ended with a nasty lifter that thudded into Azan’s chest. No words needed. The pitch, and Robinson, were very much alive.
At the other end, Archer provided the edge-of-seat theatre. His first ball of the morning, the second of the 13th over, jagged and climbed past Masood’s tentative prod. In the 15th, he produced an over that captured the tension of a last-day chase that never really was: two plays and misses from Masood, a sumptuous drive for four, then an inside-edged pull that cannoned into the body and dropped short of the bowler. Every ball carried a question. Pakistan rarely had an answer.
Even when Azan managed to pull Robinson crisply in front of square for two in the 18th over, the reply was immediate: a return to that nagging length, two balls whistling past the bat, and an LBW appeal turned down only on height. Beautiful, hostile, intelligent bowling, delivered with the air of a man who knows this is his stage.
Pakistan’s resistance in name only
The numbers tell their own story. Pakistan are averaging 15.90 runs per wicket in this series, their lowest against England in a three-Test campaign or longer since New Zealand were dismantled by Tony Lock and Jim Laker in 1958. That’s not just poor form. That’s historical collapse.
Azan and Masood did what they could. Masood stroked Archer through mid-off for a couple in the 17th over, a reminder of the class that has so often promised more than it has delivered. It remains hard to reconcile his method and timing with a Test average stuck at 30 after 50 matches. Azan, compact and busy, picked off what he could, nudging, defending, occasionally counter-punching when the length slipped.
Yet every run felt borrowed. Every over carried the sense that one ball, from one end or the other, would finally crack the resistance. The floodlights had been needed the previous evening when Pakistan began this second innings under a bank of heavy cloud, and the mood has barely lifted for them since. Even their own supporters, one wandering Edgbaston with a small blackboard demanding “Free Imran Khan … and get him in the team”, seemed to be treating this tour as something to be endured rather than enjoyed.
England’s batters leave hundreds behind
England’s position of dominance rests on a ruthless second day with the bat, when 156 for four became 453 all out by tea. It was a procession of near-misses and almost-glory.
Harry Brook, cruising on 75, ran himself out in a moment of needless haste. Dan Lawrence, who had earlier let out a yelp of frustration that echoed around Edgbaston, played superbly for 65 before chasing a wide one and dragging on, convinced he was on the way to something far bigger. Jamie Smith, batting through the pain of a suspected broken finger, crafted 69 before falling short of a maiden Test hundred. Three innings, three opportunities, three men trudging off knowing they had dominated but not quite finished the job.
Lawrence, though, could at least reflect on a summer in which he has begun to look fully at home in an England shirt. Three half-centuries in four Test innings hint at a player finally matching potential with production.
Behind them all stands Joe Root, the subject of anxious whispers whenever a low run of scores appears. For now, England’s set-up, and the looming challenges of South Africa and Australia, will ensure patience. The technical puzzles he has solved before can be solved again. This side still feels built around him.
A series drifting to its inevitable end
This third Test, like the series, has long since slipped beyond Pakistan’s reach. Their howling collapse on the first day set the tone, England’s remorselessness on the second sealed it. Friday is the only sold-out day of the match, yet even that status comes with a question: will a full house actually turn up for a contest that has effectively been over for 48 hours?
Around the country, the wider game ticks on. It is a big day in the County Championship race. At Trent Bridge, Olly Stone has bulldozed Hampshire. At Lord’s, state-school cricket finally had its day, with the Knight-Stokes Cup bringing four schools to the most storied of stages, complete with Pavilion dressing rooms, lunch, and media duties. A reminder that, even as England’s Test side canter towards a 3-0 sweep, the sport’s roots still matter.
Here at Edgbaston, though, the script feels locked in. England need eight wickets to complete a crushing, faintly melancholy whitewash. Pakistan, still hundreds adrift, have two chances: Slim and none. And Slim, as someone quipped, has already gone home.
The only real question left is not whether England will finish the job, but how quickly – and how long this bruised Pakistan side will take to recover from a tour that has laid bare just how far they have to climb.
