Joe Root felt that England did an excellent job with the bat on the fourth day of the third Investec Test at Headingley – but now have to follow that up with similar work with the ball on the fifth.
England closed the fourth day on 414 for five, leading by 311, and facing the decision of whether to declare overnight or bat on tomorrow.
Whenever the declaration comes, the challenge then will be to take ten Pakistan wickets – not an easy task against a talented batting side on a pitch on which the three sessions of the fourth day yielded two, two and one wickets respectively.
“Throughout our whole second innings it has been a magnificent effort, starting off last night with the way Cooky and Halesy built the platform,” Root said. “Myself and Vincey had to withstand a bit of pressure this morning when they bowled extremely well and strung four maidens on the bounce together, but we got through it and the way that Jonny and Moen played tonight was fantastic.
“We have just got to rock up tomorrow in the right mentality to take ten wickets. We have to think how we are going to do that and create ten chances on that surface.
“If we put the ball in the right areas often enough and take our chances then we have got a really good chance of putting Pakistan under pressure.
“The way we approached today was really pleasing. We got through the tricky periods and have tilted the match in our favour and hopefully tomorrow we can come up with a similar mindset with the ball and force a result.”
