England’s chase of 130 at Edgbaston began like a nightmare and ended like a procession, the scorecard telling only a fraction of the story behind an 8‑wicket win and a 3-0 series sweep over Pakistan.
Two balls into the day, the ground fell silent. By lunch, it was purring to the familiar rhythm of Joe Root in control.
Pakistan’s dream start
The target was awkward rather than daunting, but England turned it into a crisis almost instantly.
First ball of the morning: Ben Duckett, feeling for one he didn’t need to play at, edged Mohammad Abbas behind. A nick, a take, and sudden tension. The very next major blow arrived in the same over when Emilio Gay was pinned leg-before. England 2 for 2. The crowd restless. Pakistan, suddenly, very much alive.
At that point, the tourists could smell one of those rare, famous heists. The comeback had been sparked the previous evening by debutant Razaullah with the bat, and the script seemed to be writing itself: one more collapse, one more twist in a series that had already swung wildly.
No-ball turns the tide
But Test cricket has a brutal way of turning on details measured in millimetres.
Razaullah, the overnight hero, leaked runs in his opening burst with the ball. England were still shaky, yet Pakistan could not quite tighten the noose, and an early change was forced. Mohammad Ali entered the attack and, for a brief, electric moment, it looked like the masterstroke.
He went through Joe Root with a beauty. Stumps shattered. Pakistan erupted. Root, England’s anchor, apparently gone.
Then came the killer blow — not from Ali, but from the replay. The front foot had landed just beyond the line. No-ball. Root recalled. The dismissal wiped from the book, the momentum ripped away from Pakistan in an instant.
If that felt cruel, what followed felt inevitable. Root drilled the very next ball to the boundary, a statement as much as a shot. In the following over, Jordan Cox joined in, collecting his own four and beginning to settle. The panic that had gripped England’s dressing room eased. Pakistan’s shoulders dropped.
Chances spilled, chance gone
Pakistan still had one more opening, and again it involved Root.
Abbas, so precise all morning, drew the outside edge. The ball flew between first and second slip. Neither moved decisively. No dive, no desperate lunge. Just a shared, fatal hesitation as the chance slid away.
That was the moment. The storm had passed.
From there, the chase turned into something almost routine. With no real scoreboard pressure and a modest target shrinking by the over, Root and Cox were free to rebuild on their own terms. Singles flowed, the odd boundary puncturing Pakistan’s increasingly flat fields. The tension that had crackled early on dissolved into inevitability.
Root, reading the situation as only he can, shifted seamlessly from survival to control. Every time Pakistan tried to probe, he answered with soft hands, precise footwork, or a firm push into the gaps. Cox, at the other end, played with a composure that belied the morning chaos, growing in authority as the partnership swelled.
Records and a ruthless finish
Root’s half-century arrived with another crisp boundary, a fitting way to mark yet another entry in a career already crammed with milestones. With that fifty, he moved past the record for the most half-centuries in the format, an achievement tucked neatly inside a pressure chase that had briefly threatened to unravel.
Cox was not content to simply watch. He made the most of his opportunity, bringing up his own fifty and ensuring this stand would be remembered for more than just Root’s landmark. By now, Pakistan’s early roar had faded to a murmur. Fielders spread, the ball softened, and the edge had gone from the contest.
England crossed the line at the stroke of lunch, the winning runs as understated as the early drama had been wild. From 2 for 2 to an unbroken century stand, Root and Cox had turned a jittery pursuit into a statement of control.
Pakistan will look back at the no-ball, the shelled slip chance, and the expensive new-ball spell from Razaullah and know the door was open. England, ruthless when it mattered, simply slammed it shut.
