An unbeaten 171 by Zak Crawley has helped England pile on the runs on the first day of the third Test against Pakistan in Southampton.
Skipper Joe Root won the toss and decided to bat first at the Ageas Bowl and, despite losing opener Rory Burns early on the innings, Crawley steered the ship to his maiden century in England colours.
Column: Let’s hold the centre amid chaos
An unbeaten 205-run partnership with Jos Buttler moved England to 332-4 by the close of play as the Pakistan bowlers’ inconsistency failed to exert any sort of pressure.
Pakistan had England in a pegged position early on in the day as Dom Sibley, Root and Ollie Pope joined Burns in the locker room, without really troubling the bowlers.
But, the performances by Crawley and Buttler provided England with the opportunity of scoring freely to ultimately take the game away from Pakistan.
England: Rory Burns, Dom Sibley, Zak Crawley, Joe Root (c), Ollie Pope, Jos Buttler (wk), Chris Woakes, Dom Bess, Jofra Archer, Stuart Broad, James Anderson.
Pakistan: Shan Masood, Abid Ali, Azhar Ali (c), Babar Azam, Asad Shafiq, Fawad Alam, Mohammad Rizwan (wk), Yasir Shah, Mohammad Abbas, Shaheen Afridi, Naseem Shah.
