Sloppiness and agility at the boundary

The sixth ball of the match, from Alzarri Joseph to Azhar Ali, was slightly overpitched and on the batsman's pads. Azhar moved across and flicked it past midwicket for four. The true bounce off the pitch and the speed with which the ball raced across the outfield provided early indications that a run-fest was potentially on offer. Azhar's sweet timing and precise placement also suggested that he might just be returning to form. In the event, the captain's return to form came to fruition; the run-fest, not quite.

Pakistan had raced away to 36 runs off the first four overs, which Joseph and Shannon Gabriel had bowled with good pace but not as much control. With the batsmen enjoying the true pitch and the ball coming on, an early bowling change should not have come as a surprise. But the choice of bowler did. Jason Holder called upon the part-time offspin of Kraigg Brathwaite in the fifth over. Bowling slow and straight from around the wicket, Brathwaite deprived the batsmen of any pace to work with. A reasonably tight seven-run over was the result. Brathwaite followed that by conceding just two in the seventh over - the first over of the match without a boundary.

It was the 46th over of the match. There had been no boundary since the 37th over. Pakistan's innings was in danger of fizzling out and pressure was building on the batsmen. Babar Azam pulled Kieron Pollard's second delivery to deep backward square for what should have been a two. Instead, Evin Lewis, running along the boundary to his left, bent down lazily and attempted to stop the ball with one hand. He missed, and the ball sped away past the boundary. The lacklustre effort was Lewis's first notable intervention of the day and it did not impress the bowler.

In the fourth over of the chase, a boundary-rider displayed exceptional speed and grace, covering ground with consummate ease before leaping over the advertising hoardings in arguably the most agile display of the day. That boundary-rider was not a cricketer, though - it was a black cat. Disappointingly, it did not re-appear for an encore.

On the third ball of the eighth over, Sohail Khan, bowling right-arm over the wicket to the left-handed Lewis, wrapped the batsman on the pads in front of the stumps and umpire Ahsan Raza raised his finger. Lewis reviewed and was reprieved when it emerged that the ball had pitched ever so slightly outside leg. Next ball, Sohail struck Lewis on the pads again. The delivery was a bit fuller than the previous one and looked even closer, but was given not out. This time the bowler reviewed, but again the ball was found to have been pitching marginally outside leg. Sohail had the last laugh in his next over, though. Lewis moved across his stumps to another ball that had pitched outside leg. This one went past the pads and clattered into leg stump.