CRICKET THIRD TEST:THE DEVASTATING alliance of Mohammad Amir and Saeed Ajmal soon wiped the smiles from the England dressing room. When this pair took six wickets for 27 runs after tea, Pakistan, in disarray one week, irresistible the next, scented a famous victory.

Up until then there had been quiet satisfaction in the England camp. One of their cherished number had overcome a personal hurdle. Alastair Cook had hit the century to silence the doubters and at tea, with the score on 194 for three, England seemed destined for a substantial lead, sufficient to defeat a callow touring side.

But when the umpires decided to take the players from the field for bad light at 5.15pm England were staggering at 221 for nine. Their lead was therefore a paltry 146 and the doubters had plenty of other points to debate beyond Cook’s recent form. There were signs of a soft underbelly to the batting line-up, which was displaying glaring technical deficiencies against the moving ball. That 75 minutes of play will have them salivating in Lahore and Karachi – and Melbourne and Sydney.

The two architects of England’s collapse produced traditional Pakistani magic. There was Amir reverse-swinging the ball with unquenchable zest and perfect control, provoking the inevitable comparisons with Wasim Akram. Bowling around the wicket he contrived away-swing from the right-handers. Neither Jonathan Trott, who had ground to 36 in three and a half hours, nor Paul Collingwood (out of form), nor Matt Prior (in form) could cope. Moreover, Kamran Akmal and his cohorts behind the wicket were taking their chances.

At the Vauxhall End Ajmal was weaving his spell just as Saqlain Mushtaq used to do. The presence of the doosra in his armoury sowed uncertainty among all the batsmen, as did his startling change of pace. Saqlain used to tiptoe to the crease, Ajmal shows the batsmen a full set of studs with his left boot at the crease, but the bemusement caused by the doosra and unrelenting control was the same.

Ajmal had removed James Anderson with his first ball in the morning session and he had commanded respect throughout the afternoon, but England had rebuffed him patiently. But after tea the spinner caused havoc.

First he propelled an off-break through Kevin Pietersen’s gate, which seemed so wide that a combine harvester might have passed through. In truth, the distance between bat and pad was four inches as the ball clipped the top of middle stump with Pietersen groping helplessly.

Eoin Morgan’s gate was not so wide. Even so, Ajmal managed to penetrate it easily enough with a doosra that brushed Morgan’s pads before hitting the stumps. So England were suddenly in tatters.