Pakistan vs England: Marcus Trescothick confident of second Test victory despite late batting collapse

A roller coaster day three in Multan began with England in control of the game before a dramatic collapse by the visitors was followed by a resilient Pakistani batting performance. The hosts need another 157 wickets for victory, while England need six wickets.

There was a lot of fog in Multan in the morning which led to wetter and more favorable conditions for bowlers to start the day. Of the 34 wickets that fell during the match, 19 came in the first session.

“In the three days so far,” he said, “the morning session seems to be where most wickets have fallen, so hopefully it continues in that trend and we can put us in a position to win the Game.

“It was a bit different today because there wasn’t as much dew this morning, it was a bit more windy so hopefully there will be a bit more fog in the morning and it will calm down along the floor.

Apart from the first session of the day, wickets have been hard to come by on a pitch that unexpectedly improves rather than worsens as the game progresses. A fact that makes Pakistan’s pursuit of 354 a realistic, if still monumental, task.

However, Pakistan even having a chance in this match is the result of an English batting slump which saw them lose their last five wickets for nineteen as they pushed for quick runs. A passage of play that left the door ajar for Pakistan where it should have been slammed.

“I don’t know if it’s done,” Trescothick replied on whether England’s continued positivity got Pakistan back in the game. Of course you always want to get more runs and we tried to be aggressive, it’s our style to try to do that.

“Yes we lost five wickets and yes we would have liked an extra 150, of course we would have, but we always back each other in those kind of positions to get that total on the board and win.”

England struck late in the day to knock out the impressive Imam-ul-Haq, a wicket that broke a century-long partnership between the left-hander and Saud Shakeel and will mean new striker Faheem Ashraf starts tomorrow on just three points.

“It was a brilliantly important wicket,” Trecothick said. “I think the partnership they put in place was quite good, they were building a nice place and the wicket was quite docile.

“We still have a hell of a total on the board, and there are still a lot of points to get. As you can see as the ball got older and the pitch got flatter the more the heavy roller was used on it.

“It’s always tricky, you have to find something different and it’s either a really good pace, going off the track or something different with your pitch and we’re trying all of that right now.

“We have a small breakthrough, but we have to hope for more tomorrow.”