From 154/9 to 242: Shadab Khan's maiden international hundred carries Pakistan into the tri-series final

Lahore. Shadab Khan had been given out lbw to a full toss on 97. He had turned towards the pavilion, shaken hands with England's players, and everyone in the Gaddafi Stadium had closed the file on the match. Then the review came back with an inside edge on it, and two hours of stored pressure left the ground in one breath. Pakistan were 154 for nine, needing 88, and the exit queues had already formed. From a commentary box I have watched this happen many times: a crowd will leave even when half the story is still owed to it. On this night it came back, and so did the story.

A night earlier the same ground had produced 859 runs. Friday was bat against ball at speed. Pakistan won the toss and bowled, and England were dismissed for 241 with 20 balls unused. Ben Duckett's 105 — his second hundred at Lahore, his first against Pakistan, the fifth of his ODI career — was the scaffolding of the innings. Shaheen Shah Afridi took four wickets and reached 150 ODI wickets. England handed Henry Crocombe an ODI debut in place of Josh Tongue, out with a bruised toe, and left Adil Rashid on the bench for a second successive match. Razaullah also debuted. Both sides wore the salmon pink of the breast cancer awareness campaign.

Pakistan's power play was as treacherous as England's had been. Fakhar Zaman flashed a drive in the fifth over and found Jamie Overton's hands at slip, giving Gus Atkinson his first wicket. Crocombe's first over was on the money; his third, a scattered nine-ball affair, still produced Saim Ayub, who had opened his account with a six off his tenth ball. The crowd had one name on its lips. Babar Azam, at his home ground, gave them a pure off drive and an equally regal stroke on the on side — and then Atkinson went through the gate and lit the top of off stump. Saad Baig made an otherworldly 32 before Will Jacks took a bullet at backward point.

From there it became cat and mouse. Could England nag Pakistan into giving wickets away? They could. Liam Dawson, Sam Curran and Overton bowled on a button. Hasan Nawaz launched Dawson into the stratosphere where Harry Brook waited; Arafat Minhas lasted three balls before directing Overton to Joe Root, freshly moved to short fine leg; Salman Ali Agha's slog found Curran at long off; Razaullah got a gorgeous ball from Jacks between bat and pad. Pakistan went from 103 for six to 154 for nine, and it looked finished.

Then came Shadab and Haris Rauf. Rauf's seven from 19 balls was not a statistic but a promise to stay. That is where the innings turned: Pakistan did not need a strike rate, they needed a partner who could keep his own wicket intact and hand Shadab the freedom to choose his ball. Shadab took the freedom. England hunted yorkers; he began playing them into the leg side. The drama doubled when Rauf argued a wide with Jacks and had to be ushered away by Root. For years I was told in press boxes that tactics were for the boys; the tactics were never for the boys, they were for anyone who stayed awake.

Twenty were needed, and twenty came, across twenty nail-nibbling minutes. Shadab dabbed an Atkinson yorker for four to reach a first hundred in any international cricket; Rauf drove Crocombe for four and Pakistan had won by one wicket.

Read England's innings backwards and the picture clarifies. Their first four wickets fell at 4, 5, 1 and 6 — a pin number in a straight line. Tom Banton clipped Shaheen's fifth ball to cover; Root struck a boundary and then splodged; Brook edged his first ball and was run out returning for a second by Razaullah's pick-up and throw; Jordan Cox nuzzled Rauf towards third man and Babar dived to his right at slip. England were 56 for four at the end of the power play.

Curran gave Duckett the sticking partner he needed, 93 together, before Curran hooked Shaheen to fine leg on 42 — Shaheen had brought himself back to break the stand and did. England's last five wickets added 96, Duckett reaching his hundred with a single and a quiet kiss of the badge on his helmet. Pakistan did not bowl Arafat, six wickets at Rawalpindi behind him, until the 29th over; when they did, he removed Duckett and Overton.

Here is where I want to stop, before the fairy tale hardens. This is Pakistan's recurring illness: the top order hands the match to the lower order and the lower order saves it — which builds belief without changing structure. 103 for six and 154 for nine is a pattern, not an accident. England's selection story is just as legible: Rashid benched twice, an ODI debutant thrown into a must-win after Tongue's injury, no experienced spin option at the death. When Shadab changed gear in the nineties, England had only the yorker — and against a set batter, only the yorker is a gamble, not a plan.

The calendar deserves a line too. 859 runs on Thursday, 241 and 242 on Friday, one ground, two days, two different sports. The pink kit is a good gesture; the question is whether it is the colour of an evening or a change in the year's fixture list. The press box was narrow, but the game was not.

Pakistan carry one win and one question into the final. The win belongs to Shadab, who showed that a hundred can be made at number seven. The question is what happens the next time the top order leaves 103 for six behind — whether another Shadab is left to save it. The final ball does not close the story; it opens the door for questions.