Pakistan vs England day four: Alastair Cook's side up against it in Sharjah after losing two late wickets

The tourists lost two early wickets in their hunt for a target of 284

Pakistan celebrate the removal of Ian Bell during England's second innings (Getty Images)

To sustain the crazy dream of levelling the series, England needed to create and seize opportunity. It meant not only taking every chance that came their way but being remorseless, squeezing Pakistan until the pips squeaked. Then, who knows? 1-1 – the height of respectability in these parts – would loom on the horizon.

They were hopeless. From the first over of the penultimate day in the third Test, when a pattern might have been set, they missed chances and they went on missing chances. When they were not doing that, they were allowing Pakistan the freedom to survive and add to their lead.

The fielding was moderate to shambolic on any stats app you cared to examine, though it did not need gizmos to confirm it. But the most disappointing aspect of England’s play – if on reflection it was hardly unexpected – was the bowling of their three spinners.

On a turning pitch, none of the trio looked up to the task in hand, which naturally prompted hand-wringing about the state of English slow bowling. It was hardly a revelation after this cursory investigation was complete – all it needed – to find that it is parlous, but then only on the salad days in July and August might English pitches allow what counts for the country’s stock of slow bowlers to bowl. Too often, perfectly good balls, often probing, were followed by rank bad ones.

Jimmy Anderson, who together with his fast bowling partner, Stuart Broad, was again exemplary, could have been forgiven for being irritated, possibly desolate. But 426 Test wickets offer a certain wisdom that goes beyond the moment. He understood the pitfalls awaiting spinners.

“It’s a big learning curve,” he said. “They’re bowling at batsmen who have grown up playing against spin. I’d say some of their guys are experts at it, but they’re going to take a lot from it.”

He followed it with a gentle warning, given that England will again be on Asian duty next winter, in Bangladesh and India. “In international cricket you have to learn fast or you don’t stick around in it. They’re going to have to learn fast if they’re going to improve and help us to win next winter.”

The upshot of yesterday’s feeble exhibition was that England, who have by no means played badly in this series, were left needing 284 runs to win when the consensus was that chasing anything upwards of 220 would be arduous.

Ian Bell was one of two late victims for England (Getty Images)

Now spin of a different hue was displayed; eternally menacing, with the close fielders always being kept interested and expressing interest, little to hit, less to milk. Enter Yasir Shah, Zulfiqar Babar, Shoaib Malik.

A solid, almost rapid start against Pakistan’s pace duo was soon neutered and at the end of their most dispiriting day of the tour England were reduced to 46 for 2, with Moeen Ali, naturally, and Ian Bell, inevitably, gone. An academic 238 runs were still needed unless there are some real heroes about.

This day showed how much these Ashes-winners still have to learn and how darned hard it is to win on these kind of pitches when you do not possess the right tools. It was like trying to open a locked safe with a hair grip, all right in adventurous theory, doomed in practice.

If only England had helped themselves. But it went awry quickly. The first ball of the day, a leg-break from Adil Rashid which beat Mohammad Hafeez, elicited a review which was rejected because it pitched outside leg stump. A pity for the tourists. But worse followed. Rashid then produced a googly third ball which beat Hafeez, still on 97, all ends up. It also went past an immobile Jonny Bairstow, whose gloves were still outside off stump when the ball was whizzing past leg.

This was an ace delivery, on the button, and while Rashid can be praised for disguising it, Bairstow’s job is to read it. He has kept wicket in 51 first-class matches for Yorkshire in which Rashid has bowled 8,628 balls. If he cannot spot the wrong ’un now, so early in the day, the signs are not necessarily promising.

It would be misleading to suggest that the fight went out of England but they were scruffy in the field from then on. Broad missed a return catch, also offered up by Hafeez, to his left. Other defective strokes went safe.

Later, Anderson missed a fairly straightforward offering at mid-on. They could almost be forgiven these lapses. Together they kept Pakistan quiet, largely with copious reverse swing, and wickets did fall somehow. By the time the innings closed, the opening pair had joint match figures of 11 for 126 from 77.1 overs. It was the stuff of wonder, especially when compared to the efforts of the spin trio, who managed a combined seven for 423 from 115.2 overs.

Hafeez, perky throughout, scored his ninth Test hundred and his first against England after two scores in the nineties, the first of them 10 years ago. When he departed having mistimed a lofted on-drive, he had scored 151 out of his team’s total of 257 for 6.

England had 22 overs to survive and began at a lick. They were going for them. Their spirits were still high after all, despite another 118 overs in the field – making 626 in total in just a three-Test series.

Audacity lasted until the spinners came on in the fifth over. The imminently retiring Shoaib made the inroads. Moeen was lbw to a ball that went straight on and wasted a review to establish that it was indeed going on to hit the stumps.

As an experiment, Moeen as Test opening batsman has so far been less than a roaring success, no matter how you try to spice up his 84 runs in six innings.

Then came Bell. And then went Bell. He faced five balls, showing some dainty foot movement, before he stayed in the crease, expected a Shoaib ball from round the wicket to turn and was bowled when it did not.

Alastair Cook and Joe Root both narrowly survived reviews from Zulfiqar but it was not exactly going England’s way.