Trailing by 127 on a pitch that was in danger of rapidly deteriorating, it took almost everything for England to get their way. The plan was simple enough: move towards parity in the first session, and hope that Pakistan would hit another mental block in the third that would allow England to get back into the match.

Instead, their day was defined by missed chances – specifically two of them in three balls early in Salman Agha’s innings. Salman held off England last week, scoring 167 runs for one in the first Test, but offered two chances before reaching double figures. Both went to ground, and he made England pay for their indiscretion.

Carse looked dejected at the first fall and then crouched in disbelief after the second chance fell two balls later. Salman’s thick outside edge flew to Joe Root, who flew in so tight at slip that he was wearing a helmet, who reached the ball with both hands but could not hold on to it. Ben Stokes couldn’t hide his annoyance and cursed in frustration.

In the heat of the afternoon, Carse was in the fifth over of a grueling period, hitting the pitch as hard as he could, but his fielders let him down. Stokes tapped, and when Salman sent the first ball of Carse’s next to point for a single that he thought could have been stopped, he made his feelings clear.

England also had sloppy moments in the field in the first Test, although their Herculean batting effort ensured they were cheap. They dropped at least six catches, including four in the first 30 overs of Pakistan’s second innings, as Ollie Pope missed a run-out chance and Smith stumped.

But Stokes, watching, was generally impressed with England’s attitude on the field, particularly their commitment to chasing every ball to the boundary in heat that reached 40 degrees. On the eve of this match he said their desire to do “the very little things” showed their “togetherness and team spirit”. It let them down for a while on Thursday.

“It’s frustrating at times,” said England assistant coach Paul Collingwood. “It’s unusual to be so close to the bat, but the nature of the pitch is that you have to try to make sure that every lead is maintained. We saw a lot of balls that bounced through twice to Jamie Smith… These guys probably went an extra two or three meters closer to actually take the lead.

There were other half-chances that were missed during the Pakistan innings: Root, at slip, barely saw the first, as Saud Shakeel’s thick edge flew over his left shoulder, while Zak Crawley was fingered by a hard grab at short cover. Ben Duckett almost stuck to an athletic self-relay for a long time, but could not recover his balance in time.

Carse, who has been hugely impressive in his first two tests, must have regretted his misfortune. During a ninth-wicket stand worth 65 between Salman and Sajid Khan, which sapped England’s lives, he thought Sajid had fallen behind on 16. But his attempts to convince Chris Gaffaney were unsuccessful, and a DRS glitch denied him him the chance. to prove otherwise.

These misses would hardly warrant a mention in other circumstances, but England were left cold on a day when only a hot streak would do. Pakistan’s brave decision to rip up their strategy between Tests and reuse the same strip in the hope that it would turn was heavily dependent on winning the toss, but from the moment they did they were ahead .

Betting is banned in Pakistan, but their brain trust has made a big push and it has paid off. “Pakistan took a risk by winning the toss and they did that in this Test match,” Collingwood said. “As we saw on the first day, the pitch played quite well. It’s a gamble they were willing to take, and a gamble they were willing to take in the selection as well. But from our point of view, we can’t complain.” “

England are not out of this match yet, as evidenced by a glimpse of McCullum’s white soles as Root and Pope put on an unbroken 25 late in the day. They have made a habit of extracting victories from unlikely situations in Pakistan, but completing their highest-ever chase in Asia on a ninth day could be their toughest challenge yet.