Alastair Cook conceded his England team did not deserve to get out of jail after Adil Rashid led a defiant tail-end rearguard that fell agonisingly short of saving the second Test against Pakistan in Dubai.
Rashid’s four-hour vigil at the crease from No8, scoring 61 from 172 balls, marshalled the lower order only for his dismissal, caught off a fellow leg-spinner, Yasir Shah, to leave England 312 all out and beaten by 178 runs. Only 39 balls of the Test match remained.
Cook, whose side go 1-0 down with one Test to play, insisted England’s first-innings collapse on the third morning, when 60 runs were added but their final seven wickets fell, was where the game was lost rather than Rashid’s brief lapse of concentration at the end. “Adil is obviously very disappointed,” said the England captain.
“What great character he has shown. But you don’t need to be a rocket scientist to realise you can’t lose seven for 60. To win games of cricket out here you have to be absolutely relentless for five days. Credit to the way Pakistan bowled but we didn’t bat well in that two hours and it cost us.”
Rashid, above, was joined by the No10, Mark Wood, at 2.05pm on the final day, with their two-hour alliance raising hopes of a great escape to match the first Ashes Test at Cardiff in 2009, the two draws in South Africa later that year or the 2013 Auckland Test, when each time they survived with nine wickets down. Wood made 29 from 95 balls.
“As that partnership grew and grew, people sat stiller and stiller. The belief started to happen. I’ve been involved in too many of these and never actually been out there batting, I’d much rather be out there than watching. But it was a long way back from that third morning and we probably didn’t deserve to get out of jail, however well Adil played.”
Given the struggles of Ben Stokes and Jos Buttler above him in the order, it was only right that Cook should exonerate Rashid, playing just his second Test, from the attacking shot that led to his demise. To a man the England team patted the 27-year-old on the back on his way into the dressing room, with his captain philosophical afterwards.
“A few of us would like our shots back, I was one of them as well,” said Cook, who swept Yasir to deep backward square-leg on 10 the previous day. “You never mean to get out or mess up and he would love to have that shot back, especially given how well he played the other 171 balls, but that’s cricket, that’s sport.”
On Rashid and Wood’s 29.2-over stand – the longest ever ninth-wicket partnership in the fourth innings of a Test match – Cook’s opposite number, Misbah-ul-Haq said: “They played really well, they were not in a hurry and there was no panic. It’s all a game of patience and they gave us a tough time. That’s the beauty of this game, it’s why we love it.
“We knew the pressure was on them when it comes close. Rashid played really well but he made a mistake and we managed to win this game.”
While England’s hopes of winning in the United Arab Emirates have gone, Cook insisted he will be fit for their bid to square the series in Sunday’s third Test in Sharjah despite reporting a tight groin during the defeat; team-mate James Anderson has told his captain to “drink a glass of cement and toughen up.”
Cook warned changes to the team will be discussed in coming days however, with the form of wicketkeeper Buttler, who has averaged 13 since the start of the summer Ashes, the chief concern. If Jonny Bairstow takes the gloves, batsman James Taylor could come in to bolster the middle order.
“Naturally when you lose games or people haven’t performed as they would like, you look at the team. Players are itching to come in. We’ll look at our team. Jos hasn’t scored the runs. It’s Test cricket and it’s a really tough time when you are struggling; I’ve been there numerous times and it’s hard.”
On England’s struggles in the lower-middle order, Misbah added: “That’s where I think there was a difference between the two teams. England rely on 6,7,8 and normally they produce heavily. Ben Stokes has performed well for them in the past and Buttler too; their not scoring runs here has made a big difference.”
The Pakistan captain went on to praise fast bowler Wahab Riaz, whose four for 66 in England’s first innings included a nine over, three-wicket burst on that fateful third morning that saw him go on to be named man of the match.
“That was the spell that changed the game for us,” added Misbah. “England were playing well, but getting Root and a couple more was the key for us. Taking a 100-plus lead after the first innings, his spell was the key for us.”
