England 112 for 2 (Root 37*) trail Pakistan 171 (Shafique 61, Tongue 5-46, Robinson 5-51) by 59 runs

Pakistan receded into their shell, emboldening Robinson to bowl fuller. He went across the stumps to Shan Masood in his third over, and found success with his first delivery, a nip-backer that was going on to hit the middle of middle.

Pakistan needed a respite from England’s electric start, and they got it in the form of Yorkshire’s weather. Just short of an hour into the day, a dark cloud hovering menacingly over the ground made good on its threat, the ensuring downpour forcing an early lunch and a two-hour delay.

The break helped Pakistan settle, and disrupted England in equal measure. Jofra Archer did not threaten the stumps in quite the same way Robinson had, and England continued to go full. Shafique and Imam, natural front-foot players, were disciplined and opportunistic in equal measure, driving down the ground and picking up boundaries with regularity.

With the run rate picking up – Pakistan scored at nearly 4.5 since the interruption during that stand – conditions suddenly looked good for batting. A pair of boundaries off a wayward Archer brought up the 50-partnership, and Tongue’s errant start saw Shafique help himself to a couple more.

Pakistan have, however, struggled to press home such advantages in the past, and with the hundred-run stand approaching, Imam gave up his wicket with unforgiveable – if characteristic – softness. He pushed at a harmless delivery well outside off from Tongue with limited footwork, edging it at perfect catching height for second slip.

England smelled blood, and with Robinson settling into a long spell, Saud Shakeel, whose record outside Asia remains a point of concern, was firmly within his sights. In his sixth over, he tailed one in sharply to Saud, who was struck on the knee roll as he moved across. After an interminably long period mulling it over, umpire Allahuddien Paleker raised his finger. Pakistan were slow to review, and Chris Gaffaney told Shakeel he’d run out of time. To add insult to injury, ball-tracking projected the ball would have cleared leg stump.

All of England’s inconsistency seemed to evaporate with the late afternoon sunshine, and Pakistan’s customary collapse was suddenly in full swing. In the seventh over of the spell, Robinson had Jamie Smith up at the stumps, pinning Shafique to his crease as he found just enough nibble to pierce the bat-pad gap.

Salman Ali Agha and Mohammad Rizwan average nearly 40 together at the crease, the highest for any specific combination in this side. They also represented Pakistan’s last realistic hope of a competitive first-innings score, and briefly found a way to keep England at bay. It was without conviction though. Rizwan top-edging a slog-sweep second ball perhaps summed that up best, and though they hung around to bring up the 150, England prowled as they moved in for the kill.

Tongue had sprayed the ball about, but found an unplayable one, jagging back to crash into off stump at 91mph. He feasted on the hapless lower as Pakistan folded for 171, their lowest score in the 1st innings of a Test in a decade.

In a recurring theme through the day, Pakistan found themselves on the wrong side of a marginal DRS call, when Mohammad Abbas trapped Ben Duckett in front. Ball-tracking predicted that it would go on to hit a fair chunk of the top of middle, though not quite enough to overturn the umpire’s not out decision.

Pakistan’s frustrations compounded when England began brightly, the openers scoring at over four. But Abbas finally got his man when he brought one back into Duckett from around the wicket, trapping him dead in front of middle stump.

Agha had said at the toss Pakistan would have batted first anyway. As Root and Cox eased past 50 for the partnership, Agha – and his side – may have begun to appreciate these were decent batting conditions after all.