England bat again with 391 lead after Misbah stands alone

Tea England 589 for 8 dec (Root 264, Cook 105) and 11 for 0 lead Pakistan 198 (Misbah 52, Masood 39, Wahab 39, Woakes 4-67) by 402 runsLive scorecard and ball-by-ball details

England dismantled Pakistan for 198 on the third afternoon at Old Trafford but even with an advantage of 391 runs chose not to enforce the follow-on. There is talk of fickle Manchester weather for the second half of the match, but even that did not persuade England’s captain Alastair Cook to go for an early kill.

Few Test captains put the opposition in again these days without misgivings, but having dismissed Pakistan in 63.4 overs, Cook’s reluctance was debatable even allowing for modern trends and non-stop schedules.

Perhaps the need to soft pedal with Ben Stokes after his return from a knee operation, or the flaky form of his only spin bowler, Moeen Ali, were contributory factors. Perhaps England have no wish to face the legspin of Yasir Shah in the fourth innings, after his success against them in the first Test at Lord’s gave Pakistan victory and took Yasir to the top of the Test bowling rankings.

Perhaps, more likely, is that Cook recognised the need to give some batting to his malfunctioning middle order with James Vince and Gary Ballance both struggling to assert themselves. But that would depend on them getting to the crease. By the time another rain shower had brought about an early tea, Cook himself had added 11 with Alex Hales in 2.4 uneventful overs.

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