3rd Test: England vs Pakistan at Sharjah

This is not good, at all, at all  :-[

England really only have 7 wickets in hand given Stokes' injury. England were so well placed after Day 2 but the last two days have clearly belonged to Pakistan and England are in all kinds of trouble.

England's trio of spinners were very poor this Test. Broad and Jimmy were immense. I said it before the start of the first day, I would have played Plunkett over Patel. While Patel's runs in the first innings were very useful, he is nothing more than a part time spinner. The seamers troubled Pakistan throughout and were able to exert pressure. Plunkett would have surely been the better choice.

Disaster for England. Root out lbw tenth ball of the morning. He was desperately unlucky to get a ball that stayed ankle high. If the ball is going to stay that low, England will be lucky to make it out of the morning session.

Crickey, this pitch is looking unplayable this morning. Invariable bounce and sharp spin. Taylor edges one and England are reeling at 57/4. This one shouldn't last long today.

Bairstow now out for a duck and Pakistan are moving England down. 58/5.  ::dead::

Patel out first ball now. 59/6. This is amazing stuff. Full credit to Pakistan. They have put the ball in the right areas and made good use of the invariable bounce and spin. England's spinners need to be shown this footage on an endless loop.

Just when England were perhaps gaining the tiniest glimmer of hopes, Rahat Ali uproots Rashid's middle stump and England are now 108/7. They made it to lunch at least.

Cook and the injured Stokes stumped in back-to-back overs and Pakistan win by 127 runs. Shoab Malik in his last Test match finishes with match figures of 7/56. A good match, though a disappointing end result from England's point of view.