According to assistant coach Marcus Trescothick, England’s second Test against Pakistan is “50-50”.
The home side were 198-4 on day three, 157 runs behind a victory target of 355 in Multan.
“We’re going with two results tomorrow. It’s going to be an interesting time,” Trescothick told Test Match Special.
“We’ll know by lunchtime how close it is.
England got a crucial wicket at the end of the third day, with Jack Leach catching Imam-ul-Haq at slip for 60.
He put on 108 runs for the fourth wicket with Saud Shakeel who is playing on 54 runs.
“When you’ve been through a long time and they’ve had a partnership together, you just want something to bring life back,” said former England opener Trescothick.
“It’s important to get to the end of the day’s play to make tomorrow a little easier.”
England started the day with a lead of 281 runs at 202-5. After Harry Brooke’s second century in as many Tests, skipper Ben Stokes fell for 41 and England’s carelessness unraveled as they fell five wickets for 19.
“We probably wanted a few more runs and expected that, but the style of play we use, there is an element of risk,” said Trescothick, who played 76 Tests.
“We wanted to push the game. We lost a few wickets, but still put ourselves in a really good position to win the game.
“You always want more runs and being aggressive is our way of trying to do that. There are still a lot of runs to be scored. We are still in a very good position.”
England, who won the first Test in a thriller, are looking for their first series win against Pakistan outside the UK in 22 years.
“It looks even,” Pakistan batting coach Mohammad Yousuf said. “We’ll approach tomorrow positively and obviously want to win. Hopefully we’ll get it.”
Pakistan openers Abdullah Shafiq and Mohammad Rizwan added 66 runs for the first wicket before the home side were overtaken by brilliant bowling from England pacers James Anderson, Ollie Robinson and Mark Wood.
Rizwan was bowled by Anderson, skipper Babar Azam shrugged off Robinson and Wood through Shafiq’s defense to leave Pakistan 83-3.
Both Imam and Shakeel could have been caught during their stance, while England failed to assess when Imam should have been caught out on the leg side before Leach’s late strike.
Pakistan’s legendary batsman Yusuf said that we have to play like the last partnership, not in a hurry.
“We need to have a positive approach and play with the ball according to the situation. If you get the ball in your slot, hit it. If you get a good ball, make it easy.”
