Pakistan struck early but all of England's top order batsmen chipped in with important runs to finish on 414/5 with a lead of 311 at the end of Day 4 in the third Test at Birmingham on Saturday.
Alastair Cook and Alex Hales could not build on their overnight scores but the talented Joe Root made up for his first innings disappointment with a well-composed 62. Jonny Bairstow along with Moeen Ali anchored the ship in the final session of the day's play, remaining unbeaten on 82 and 62 respectively.
The visitors got off to a dream start in the first session, removing Cook and Hales in no time. Yasir Shah took a brilliant catch to send the England skipper packing while Hales yet again fell to Mohammad Amir, poking outside the off-stump and edging it to Younis Khan at second slip.
James Vince was playing for his career and there are very few occasions where Joe Root has missed out twice in the same Test. The pendulum swung back in the favour of the hosts as Root and Vinces put on a substantial partnership. With the Root-Vince stand five short of 100, Amir yet again induced an edge from Vince and it was another easy take for Younis Khan.
England continued to play Yasir Shah well and miked out plenty of boundaries from the leg-spinner's bowling. He effected a couple of crucial strikes and it was Pakistan who shaded the advantage back at that stage. Shah got the all-important wicket of Root while Ballance flicked a delivery that was pouched by Asad Shafiq at backward square-leg.
Moeen Ali continued his good work through the series and Bairstow continued to build on what has been an excellent summer for him. From a sticky situation, the duo batted fluently, striking a flurry of boundaries to take the lead past the 300 mark.
England 297 (Gary Ballance 70, Moeen Ali 63; Sohail Khan 5 for 96) & 414/5 (Jonny Bairstow 82 not out, Alastair Cook 66; Mohammed Amir 2 for 73) lead Pakistan 400 (Azhar Ali 139, Sami Aslam 82; Chris Woakes 3 for 79, Stuart Broad 3 for 83) by 311 runs.