Second Test between England and Pakistan heading for draw after rain washes out day four

With a grim forecast on the cards for Monday a tepid draw now seems the only possible outcome, preserving England's 1-0 lead heading into the final Test of the series

Dom Sibley and Ashar Ali share a joke as rain ends play (Getty)

A penny for Rory Burns’ thoughts. Having been one of the 22 cricketers and countless fans going itchy after day three was washed out. Over four days we have had just 96.2 overs of little consequence. Yet the opener, having picked up a four-ball duck, will have more to stew over than most.

It is his second and, regardless of how many more he picks up, none will be quite as inconsequential as this one. Only this morning was the Pakistan first innings brought to an end on 236 thanks to Stuart Broad, who took the wicket of Mohammad Rizwan for 70 for figures of four for 56. Burns was the only wicket England lost in testing conditions albeit a period that was brought to a halt after five overs on seven for one. And it was a hell of a delivery to get him from Shaheen Afridi.

Granted, he only has 14 runs from three innings this series. But before that were scores of 57 and 90 in the final West Indies Test at Emirates Old Trafford. Even the career average is steady at 33. Just as this fixture will likely peter out to even more of a damp squib with further rain forecast on Monday, so this innings should be cast out of Burns’ mind. By and large, the quicker we all forget about this Test, the better.

Play got underway at 11am for the first time since day one and followed a similar pattern to Friday afternoon. Rizwan hustled as best he could to protect No 11 Naseem Shah and pilfer as many runs as possible.

Rory Burns is caught in the slips by Asad Shafiq (Getty)

It worked to a point, though a scrambled single five balls into the day almost saw Naseem run out at the striker’s end. Luckily, Zak Crawley’s throw – well wide of the stumps – was exactly as rusty as you would expect after more than a day of inactivity.

What England were able to do this time is not humour Rizwan too much. They lost control of the innings at 176 for eight when the keeper-batsman began freeing his arms. This time, he could only do so for two boundaries before Stuart Broad squared him up with a delivery the right-hander tried to flip to leg. Crawley, this time, was alert to take a simple catch at cover to bring the innings to a close with just 13 runs added in 5.2 overs. Rizwan, with his second Test fifty, finished on 72.

Though the next segment of play was only five overs, there was enough to rue what we have missed. Burns nicked his first ball just short of Asad Shafiq at second slip and then found the same fielder perfectly with an almost unplayable delivery from Shaheen Afridi: the tall left-armer getting only to swing, seam and bounce through via an edge for nought.

Rain stops play the Ageas Bowl (Reuters)

With the very next ball to Crawley, he drew a strong LBW appeal. This time that exaggerated movement through the air was too much, and an edge which was picked up when captain Azhar Ali called for a DRS review.

Even Mohammad Abbas was getting the ball to do peculiar things, hitting Dom Sibley in the ribs off a length. Luckily for both he and Crawley, they were ushered off the field by rain which persisted all the way through to 3:51 pm until play was officially called.

Hours before then the players had already moved back into their hotel rooms, given the blessings to do so by the anti-corruption manager. It was partly due to social distancing measures with so many players holed up in the pavilion. But given how lax the attitude of the umpires and ground staff have been to get play on, they may as well stay there tomorrow as well.

The reason given for the abandonment was that it would take between three and four hours for the ground to dry. Maybe it would have been less had the staff and supersoppers made an appearance before it was called off and the sun arrived to cover the ground in sunshine for the first time this week.