England face daunting task ahead of themselves in the final Test at Oval

Yasir Shah celebrates after picking one of his 3 wickets at the Oval on Saturday

England faces a daunting task ahead of themselves in the 4th and final Test at The Oval and as a brilliant spell from Yasir Shah in the 2nd innings left them reeling at 88/4 at the end of Day. 3 Earlier it was Younis Khan’s double century that put the visitors in command.

Pakistan began the day on 340/6, 12 runs ahead of the English total. Earlier in the day, it was Younis Khan who reached a well deserve century and his experience really came in handy for the Pakistan middle order. Sarfaraz Khan was there at the other end as the duo shared a 77 run partnership for the 7th wicket. Despite losing Sarfaraz, Younis pushed on and was joined by Mohammed Amir at the crease. Both scored pretty quickly to put on a 97-run partnership for the 9th wicket in quick time.

Younis reached a well deserved double century with the help of the tail, a feat which looked rather bleak in the beginning of the day. Eventually, Pakistan was bowled out for 542, giving themselves a massive 214 runs lead.

England began the 2nd innings 214 run adrift and looked to wipe out the lead losing minimum wickets and then set the Pakistan a competitive total to chase in the 2nd innings but calamity struck in the beginning of their innings as Wahab Riaz removed the English captain Alastair Cook with a beautiful outswinger. It was again the left-arm quick who unsettled the host captain and for the first time in the match, England faced the prospect of battling and grinding really hard to save the Test match.

The English batsman thought the onslaught from Pakistan would stop but the Pakistanis were no in no mood to give up just yet. It was the “Hero of Lord’s Yasir Shah who again bamboozled the English batsman with his guile. The leg-spinner wasn’t a too much threat for the English batsmen after the 1st Test, but here again, the talented leggie showed his class.

Yasir quickly dismissed Alex Hales and followed it up with the wicket of James Vince as both the batsmen were foxed by the loop of the ball and were beaten in flight. Joe Root showed some resistance for a while but he too lost his wicket before the end of the day’s play, trapped in front of the stumps by a wrong one. Though Root went for the referral but it was a foregone conclusion the moment the ball hit the pad.

England was precariously placed at the end of the day’s play and they have to play out of their skins to make a match out of it.