ENG vs PAK 2026, ENG vs PAK 3rd Test Match Report, September 09

Lunch England 299 for 6 (Brook 75, Lawrence 65, Gay 60, Smith 47*) lead Pakistan 133 (Shakeel 43, Tongue 4-42, Robinson 3-15, Archer 3-25) by 166 runs

Dan Lawrence’s half-century helped England pile on the runs and extend their lead over Pakistan early on the second day of the third Test at Edgbaston.

Lawerence and Harry Brook added 75 runs within the first hour of a morning session offering more inviting batting conditions than a heavily overcast opening day, which yielded 14 wickets, and England added 143 runs for the session in all.

Lawrence looked fluent, unfurling eight boundaries – including back-to-back fours off impressive young seamer Razaullah – and two in one over from Pakistan’s leading bowler for the series, Mohammad Abbas, hammered through midwicket and cut with venom through backward point.

So was with palpable frustration that he roared “no!” as he attempted to thread a length ball outside off from Mohammad Imran Randhawa through backward point but succeeded only in chopping onto his stumps for 65. Compounding Lawrence’s woe, it was his third fifty of the series and the seventh of his Test career but a century continues to elude him.

That was after Brook had run himself out chancing the very good arm of Shan Masood after prodding a Saim Ayub delivery towards midwicket and setting off, ending up well short of his ground as the bowler broke the stumps at the non-striker’s end.

There was doubt over whether Jamie Smith would keep in Pakistan’s second innings after he copped a nasty knock to the hand standing up to the stumps to Ollie Robinson on Wednesday and Jordan Cox was spotted practising his wicketkeeping during the pre-match warm-ups. But Smith showed no sign of discomfort with the bat, launching Ayub down the ground for six off the 11th ball he faced.

Smith moved rapidly into the 40s, scoring at almost a run-a-ball as he dispatched Razaullah for two more consecutive fours, and at lunch he was 47 not out off 53.

Gus Atkinson overturned an leg-before decision that would have sent him back on 1 and given Razaullah his third wicket when replays showed he’d got a faint edge to one that skidded onto his pad. He went to the break unbeaten on 5.

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