Yasir Shah is canny. Just when you think he's served up a half-tracker, it skids on and cramps you for room. He's varying his pace and length to stifle this England pair. Another idea - The Compton Races. Nick Compton trains to be a jockey.

Now, this is excellent. I'm wondering how many cricketers could star in their won reality TV show. I'm talking Flintoff in the jungle, or Ramps on Strictly, but cricket pros as the star of their own reality show. Bell-ringing with Ian Bell? Ready, Steady, Alastair Cook? Still Anwar after drinks, still good lines. Two singles and a two.

Pitched Outside Leg: Wouldn't the 'Merv and the Mrs' game show (11 overs), be better done as "Hughes in Charge?" with the loser voted off at the end?  

England 72-1 (16 overs) - won toss

Batsmen: Roy 43*, Root 4*

Fall of wickets: 54-1 (Hales 22)

Bowling figures: Irfan 6-0-30-1, Anwar 5-0-23-0, Riaz 4-0-17-0, Yasir 1-0-1-0.

Full scorecard

Ramiz Raja
Former Pakistan captain on BBC Test Match Special

"Varying the length at time does work, as I think Yasir Shah is a little one-dimensional at times in one-day internationals."

Spin for the first time in the shape of Yasir Shah's leggies. No catchers, but a ring full of fielders looking to save the single. In a growing crowd, there's cuddly toys of both a tiger and Minnie Mouse. How curious. Root does his best to get Yasir through, but can only get a single. Good start from Yasir. 

Vic Marks
Ex-England spinner on BBC Test Match Special

"Morgan is a one-day specialist - and I think he's proved that provided you give him about five weeks off before the start of an ODI series, he will play well! They're almost making a virtue of a fact he doesn't play Test cricket as he's fresh and brings energy to it. There's a lot of talk about specialisation recently - there are a few players here, Jason Roy is one of them, who probably aren't going to play Test cricket immediately and that uncomplicates the situation. It's no longer the soft option to have specialists."

Anwar Ali is reintroduced as Pakistan continue to shuffle the pacers - no spin as of yet. It's getting dark inside the stadium, but the sky is still blue. The shade comes from the roof of the stand, which circles the boundary like a mini version of the MCG or Gabba. Straight stuff from Anwar, only three singles from it. 

Roy, so uncertain earlier, is growing into his work here. After that belting drive off Riaz, he gets cute to late cut Irfan. He follows that up with a KP-style on drive that scorches a path towards the mid-wicket boundary. As the noise is cranked up, England have made a mini charge since that wicket fell.  

Vic Marks
Ex-England spinner on BBC Test Match Special

"This looks the best batting surface we've seen so far in this series."

Oh that's lovely from Jason Roy, the shot of the day so far. A Riaz half-volley is driven back down the ground for four, the most handsome cricket stroke you'll see. The Ryan Gosling of cricket shots, if you will.  

TV shows pictures of Hales's struggles in this series against Irfan. Bounce on and around off stump seems to cause some uncertain poking. Not great when you're about to open the batting in a Test match against Morne Morkel...

Michelle Garland: I've just switched on TMS to hear Hales lose his wicket. I'll accept the blame for that one.

What makes that all the more curious is that Hales had been running the ball through the third man area, along the ground, in comfort. The pull shot wasn't on and he came a cropper thanks to a good catch by Shoaib, who had to make decent ground round the boundary. Joe Root is the new man, flexing his knees and kicking his heels to get loose. 

Vic Marks
Ex-England spinner on BBC Test Match Special

Image source, Getty Images

"Caught at third man used to be a strange dismissal. Hales went for the pull shot, got a top edge, Malik was alert at third man and Hales is banging the turf in frustration as he sensed there were runs out there."