Tuesday 9 August 2016 10:32, UK
England took just 70.5 overs of a possible 84 available to bowl Pakistan out on the fifth and final day of the third Test, at Edgbaston.
Alastair Cook's side showed great character to come back from a first-innings deficit of 103. Here are five other things we noticed...
Milking it
As well as amusing his co-commentators by accidentally throwing a whole jug of milk over himself at breakfast on day four and writing off a reasonably-priced suit in the process, Nasser Hussain-Bolt got into the spirit of Rio 2016 by selecting an Olympic-themed Cricket XI from your Twitter nominations.
Remarkably, Sir Don Bradminton only seemed to get into the team at the last moment due to a lack of any other suitable candidates - a tough call on one of the greats of the games.
It was David Lloyd who set the tone for the Test, though. Bumble is rarely seen conducting the toss at Test venues and now we know why after taking Misbah's call of 'heads' way too literally and bashing bonces with Richie Richardson, before nearly getting cleaned out by Stuart Broad on a warm-up run.
In contrast Bumble was right at home taking charge of Team Woakes v Team Ali, after accepting an invitation to referee England's warm-up footie match on day three - commentators Athers and Nas looking more like Waldorf and Statler on the sidelines than Neville and Tyler.
Cook ups anchor
Has England's new leading run-scorer across all formats ever looked so fluent? In a curious twist that perhaps only Test cricket can deliver, Cook has eclipsed his more dynamic opening partner Alex Hales by scoring his runs at a series strike-rate of 71.10 compared to a career strike rate 47.01. Granted, Pakistan did feed some of his favourite shots, but the way in which he made the seamers in particular bowl to his strengths was mesmeric at times.
Kevin Pietersen, England's previous highest run-getter with 13,779, was good enough to applaud Chef's achievement on Twitter and it's now odds-on that Cook powers through the 14,000-run barrier at the Oval. But let's not let new-look Cook grab all the limelight from Hales, who despite his frustrating urge to give into temptation and drive increasingly looks like a viable long-term proposition at the top of the order having adjusted his set-up mid-series to play much straighter.
No mercy margin
It's nice to know that a swift apology and cheesy grin still carries some weight. By his own admission, James Anderson has always had a bit of an issue with running on the wicket so when the umpires had a few quiet words here, a little chat there during day two it shouldn't have come as a surprise.
"I probably got a little bit out of order," Anderson admitted later after reacting testily to the warnings that led to him being banned from the attack.
Fair enough, as was the lack of punishment dished out to the contrite seamer. What the incident did demonstrate was just how much the umpires' attitudes to running on the pitch had changed since the first Test at Lord's, where Pakistan's bowlers - much to England's chagrin - drifted into the red zone with some frequency. So bowlers beware - you're being watched; respect the pitch, even if scratching it into submission seems in the public service.
Case for the defensive
Misbah is an inspirational leader - we all know that - but his tactics on day four, when he frequently applauded his seamers for hanging the ball outside off stump, suggested the distinct absence of any plan B. Yes, it limited England's scoring in the morning session against a ball that was going gun-barrel straight but with the bowlers rarely targeting the stumps the burden of a heavy workload on only a four-man attack (including Sohail, clearly struggling for fitness) came back to haunt him when Bairstow and Moeen cut loose before stumps.
Would Pakistan's efforts might have been better directed at trying to get out a couple of England's batsmen playing for their places? The legendary Wasim Akram certainly thought so. "Waqar and I always took risks on pitches like this, bowling yorkers, changing the field, mixing up our variations and I just didn't see that in Pakistan's bowling."
Ali's on the plane
With tours of Bangladesh and India looming large on the horizon, are England any closer to solving their spin dilemma? Search parties were being swiftly organised in Pakistan's first innings when Moeen had sent down only two of the first 47 overs in a situation that demanded variety - the offie eventually getting through 17 overs of toil, returning 0-79.
No-one can surely continue to doubt his credentials as a frontline batsman after he played himself in on day one before opening up to contribute a valuable 63, while some of his strokeplay late on day four - particularly against Yasir Shah - was Gower-like in its fluidity.
So when man-of-the-match Moeen contributed two key wickets on the final day, his drifting delivery drawing first-innings century-maker Azhar Ali into a fateful drive before he returned to break a stubborn, bullish last-wicket stand between Sohail Khan and Rahat Ali, you sensed that was job done. England like him. Cook likes him: "The way Mo bowled after lunch into the rough was fantastic after being under pressure for a while; he tested Pakistan's technique," said Chef.
He's on the plane. The race is on to try and nail down that number two spinning spot.
Watch coverage of day one of the fourth Test between England and Pakistan live on Sky Sports 2 from 10am on Thursday.
