It is equally true that Pakistan batted skilfully, in particular Ijaz Ahmed, whose admirably assertive innings of 141 was replete with dazzling cuts and pulls and the first Test century scored for Pakistan in eight Tests at Leeds; and also that England were mistaken, yet again, to play four fast bowlers, this time with no slow bowling of any sort to assist. It left them with only one route to take and it does not look as though it was the right one.
Whenever England put a side in and fail to bowl them out on the first day, which is the only justification, they blame not the decision but the way they bowled. This, of course, was the official line last night. Feeding Ijaz with the diet of short stuff for which he has an apparent distaste, but actually devours hungrily, the latest Headingley quartet were also frustrated by a boy with a wise man's head, Shadab Kabir, in a second-wicket stand of 97, and later by Salim Malik in a fourth-wicket partnership of 130.
Malik, Ijaz's brother-in-law, is not the player he was when scoring 99, 82 not out and 84 not out in his three previous Test innings at Headingley, but he still grafted his way to a determined 55 in 193 minutes of unselfish application.
Mike Atherton had little choice, when he won the toss, but to put Pakistan in to bat once he and David Lloyd had taken the decision to field a four-man attack, all of them fast bowlers, despite the weight of precedent, both recent and historic, against it. The choice condemned England, if the plan misfired, to batting fourth against the second-best leg-spinner in the world, Mushtaq Ahmed.
Wasim Akram would have batted first, and he is happy enough with the Pakistan score.
To what extent it did misfire is a matter for debate. Not so much, certainly, as it did when England put Australia in here in 1989 and conceded a total of 601 for seven; but much as it did in the Melbourne Test two winters ago when Atherton, encouraged by Ray Illingworth, put Australia in, Shane Warne took a fourth innings hat-trick and England lost by 295 runs.
Wasim Akram would have batted first, and he is happy enough with the Pakistan score. His opponents' theory was based not so much on a misreading of the pitch as on a desire to read more into it than was actually there. Wishful thinking, in fact. This was a slowish seamer, certainly, but very far from a raging greentop: an awkward surface, but not an impossible one.
It was hard and no more than a little damp. The greenness was no more than the faintest blush on a Martian's face, despite the recent rain. There was some generous movement at times with the new ball - the Reader ball favoured by Pakistan, incidentally - but thereafter it was tamed comfortably enough by disciplined batting.
Andrew Caddick, in his first Test for 2.5 years, had little luck but his good balls beat the edge because they were a fraction short of a length. Alan Mullally bowled too wide, despite the encouragement of a wicket in his second over, the fourth of the innings, from a sliced drive to gully by Saeed Anwar off a ball of good length.
After a careful reconnaissance, Ijaz cut and pulled Chris Lewis and Dominic Cork for a flurry of fiercely hit fours and a topedged pull for six.
There was a crucial phase in the first session when Kabir and Ijaz transformed the look of the scoreboard between the 15th and 19th overs. After a careful reconnaissance, Ijaz cut and pulled Chris Lewis and Dominic Cork for a flurry of fiercely hit fours and a top-edged pull for six. Little Kabir joined in with a neat cut and a precise square drive off Cork. Hour after hour in recent years hitherto unsung left-handers have become fully fledged with the assistance of England bowlers - Shivnarine Chanderpaul, Sourav Ganguly and now Kabir. He had been batting for just over two hours - out of position, 18 years old and in only his second Test, on a supposedly spiteful pitch against four more or less seasoned fast bowlers - when he was leg-before as Caddick cut a ball back into his pads in the last over before lunch.
England's great chance to make more of their day came three overs into the afternoon when Inzamam-ul-Haq, the batting hero of Lord's, sliced a drive to gully, a mirror image of Anwar's wicket and a catch unfussily taken by the England captain in the gully position where he has become so reliable. It did not prevent Ijaz from playing his natural game, leaving the ball well, but remark- ably effective whether he went back and across his stumps or hur- ried back inside the line of the short balls he chose not to at- tack. When he decided to cut or pull, he did so without comprom- ise.
When he was 66, at 113 for three, Ijaz was caught off Caddick by Cork, running in from fine leg, from one of several top-edged hooks. But it was a no-ball and the Ijaz-Malik partnership prospered until well into the evening session when Cork produced a wide slower ball - an attempted off-break it seemed - which Ijaz chased and edged to Jack Russell. It was not at all the kind of catch behind the wicket that England had in mind earlier in the day.
They were consoled only to an extent when Malik was bowled by a perfect late outswinger from Cork and Wasim got an outside edge to Caddick in the first over with the second new ball.