England collapsed dramatically to swing and spin after tea

By Jonathan Agnew BBC cricket correspondent, The Oval

This collapse by England has been threatening to happen all summer and it is a serious worry.

It was decent bowling, reverse swing and some spin, but there was poor technique and I expect the Australians will be looking on with interest.

Look at Kevin Pietersen and the gap through the gate, Jonathan Trott and Paul Collingwood with poor strokes at wide balls and the dismissal of Strauss the night before and it is hardly surprising they were bundled out.

I think we have said it all summer - had Pakistan caught their catches, this series would have been an awful lot closer.

Apart from an outstanding individual display in each innings there has been a lot of indifferent batting.

Alastair Cook made a very timely century and battled extremely well through quite a difficult early spell but Trott played a strange innings.

It is OK to get your head down when someone is scoring at the other end but when the pressure built up and wickets went down he seemed to get bogged down and lost assurance.

He is clearly a fine batsman but he was going nowhere and to then go and chase such a wide one was odd, he really is quite an unpredictable player at times.

Mohammad Amir is going to be around for years. From around the wicket, reverse swing is not easy to play, and to be able to bowl like that at 18 is astonishing.

Saeed Ajmal is also a very dangerous bowler, and to not know which way the ball is spinning plays havoc with the mind and makes him exceptionally difficult to face.

I'm not just saying this because he took wickets but I think his action does need looking at though, and there is a lot of chuntering going on from people who think the same.

BEN DIRS' BLOG Some of the batting in the second innings at The Oval, after Cook had laid the groundwork and got England's noses in front, was downright ordinary.

I thought Pakistan's heads went down at tea when it seemed inevitable England were going to get a good lead.

They are still predominantly a young, inexperienced team and it looked as though the game was up for them so to come out after tea as they did was terrific.

It was disappointing to see the players go off for bad light.

The umpires have total control about when to stop play now, which takes the politics out of the situation, but it is pretty hard to explain to people who have paid over £60 for a ticket why it has changed by 0.1 or whatever, and the bowling wasn't hostile or dangerous.

However, had the lights not been on I don't think we'd have had much cricket today, so we have to look at the positive side of things.

I'm a little concerned about the weather but I think we have the prospect of a terrific day on Saturday.

If England can somehow pick up another 20 or so runs and set Pakistan a target of around 170 they have every chance of winning this match.

I saw Pakistan almost mess it up when chasing 180 against Australia at Headingley in July and if England bowl well and pick up a couple of early wickets it will be right back in the balance.

Mind you, if Yasir Hameed comes out and plays a few shots Strauss is going to have to set very different fields but I think it is a going to be a great day's cricket.

If England do lose I hope they make Pakistan work hard for every run.

Jonathan Agnew was speaking to BBC Sport's Jamie Lillywhite.

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