Anderson and Broad confound the graveyard

There is a sign outside the Sharjah Cricket Stadium that just says "Graveyard". Depending from which direction you approach the ground, it can almost be the last thing you see before turning in through the gates.

The numbers that England's bowlers had been provided by their statistician, Rupert Lewis, stated that just 3% of deliveries seam at the ground. After watching the coin land in Misbah-ul-Haq's favour again, you could have forgiven James Anderson and Stuart Broad if they had had their grumpy faces on when their captain returned to the dressing-room. Broad himself admitted he had been "distraught" on hearing of Alastair Cook's latest tossing failure.

And yet, at the end of the day, it was England's two senior quicks who, once again, stood tall. It was a magnificent effort as the pair wrapped up Pakistan's first innings with the combined figures of 28.1-15-30-6. If ever cricket statistics needed to reflect a combined haul, this was it.

Overall, for grounds in Asia which have hosted at least five Tests, Sharjah actually slots in around mid-table for bowling averages at 32.90, sneaking ahead of Dubai in this innings to become the most bowler-friendly ground - in the loosest sense - in the UAE. And, within that average it is the seamers who come off better, taking their wickets at 28.56 compared to 37.77 for spin.

However, that does not make it a pitch on which you would want to bowl seam-up. The occasional bouncer floated over the batsman's head and some fuller deliveries crept through to Jonny Bairstow. Then there was the turn. The local assessment was that there has never been a Test surface here that has turned so significantly so early in a match.

England played the extra spinner, opting for Samit Patel ahead of Liam Plunkett to replace Mark Wood, and in the opening session he was spinning them past the outside edge in his first Test since Kolkata on the 2012-13 tour of India. Patel's inclusion was a borderline call, but he acquitted himself well with two key wickets, although Ben Stokes' shoulder injury is likely to leave all the pace bowling now on the shoulders of Anderson and Broad.

"It's quite good fun," Anderson said last week when asked about bowling in the UAE, "if you have a good day out here you feel you get more out of it personally. There is more reward."

When Broad was asked his view after finishing with 2 for 13 off 13 overs, he was not quite so sanguine about the challenge. "I prefer four wickets in 10 balls when it's swinging around, to be honest, but Cooky mentioned at the start of the tour that fielding and bowling here is like a badge of honour," he said. "You need experience, you need different skills and it's always a test to come and play in different conditions. But I prefer bowling at Trent Bridge."

Even before his 4 for 17, Anderson's Test average in the UAE was already better than anywhere else he has played cricket, and collectively English pace bowlers, from this and the 2012 tour, have comfortably performed better than any other nation in the region. While much has changed for England in those three years, it remains Anderson and Broad who lead the line, regardless of conditions.

Anderson has said he would like to play for another five years and Broad is currently being protected for Test cricket. Even now that one-day cricket is put on a par with Tests by the England management, the pair are so crucial to the longer format that their partnership must be kept as the priority.

Between them they managed to find those three deliveries in a hundred that nibbled off the seam. They brought lose pokes outside off from Azhar Ali and Shoaib Malik, while Younis Khan inside-edged one from Broad which nipped back but did not quite carry to Bairstow. Anderson then removed the pitch from the debate by pinning Younis lbw with a low full toss with his first delivery back into the attack

The Malik and Younis wickets came in the first hour of the afternoon session in which Pakistan scored just 18 runs in 15 overs as Broad, with a spell of 5-5-0-1, and Anderson sent down eight consecutive maidens. Again Pakistan focused almost entirely on seeing out the quicks before attacking the spinners, however this time the tactic did not work as effectively as it had in Dubai.

Starting with Azhar's flat-footed poke - understandable given his lengthy lay-off - Pakistan aided in their own demise. Only Asad Shafiq, edging a Patel delivery which gripped and bounced, could claim to have been dismissed by a delivery he could not do much about and, as in Dubai, the lower-order resistance left a lot to be desired. Misbah's Test career may be coming to an end, but not before he was left running out of partners one more time until he edged the new ball to slip.

What will Pakistan's 234 be worth in the end? The players themselves were unsure at the close, both sides noting the slow outfield and significant early turn. While it was pace that did for Pakistan, surely it will be spin that is the biggest danger to England with Yasir Shah looming.

The statistics say that England have done remarkably well so far - 234 is, by a distance, the lowest first-innings score since Tests returned here in 2011 - but this is not a typical Sharjah pitch. However, England have given themselves a chance to build a position from which they can level the series. And at 10am this morning, that's all they could have asked for.