Moments after Ollie Robinson, immovable from the crest of his wave, had Saim Ayub caught in the slips by Harry Brook from the first ball of Pakistan’s second innings, a PA announcement warned Edgbaston stewards of a ‘Code Red’.It had apparently been triggered by a fire alarm and, for a few seconds, the crowd fell eerily silent. But they burst into life three balls later when Robinson had Abdullah Shafique poking low to Joe Root at first slip, leaving the tourists nought for two and facing a Code Red situation of their own.The fire alarm proved false, and Pakistan saved at least a little face by reaching 52 for two before rain ended play shortly after 5pm.But as Root’s team closed in on a 3–0 whitewash in gloomy Birmingham, it was possible to feel two emotions at the same time: delight for England, who batted with panache and bowled with precision, and despair for Pakistan, a once great side reduced to chaos and cluelessness by the machinations of their board and the misery of their players.There was uproar in Karachi and Lahore when, only two days into this series, their side were described as the worst their country had sent to these shores for 50 years. Those voices have fallen silent now, with England – in disarray themselves not long ago – largely doing as they pleased on the second day of this third and final Test.Resuming on 156 for four, they thrashed 297 in 60 overs before being dismissed for 453, at which point Robinson took his series haul to 21 wickets at an average of 6.66 with the kind of precision that turns metronomes green with envy. It has all been closer to bloodsport than sport. Ollie Robinson shone again as England closed in on a series whitewash over Pakistan It was another day of despair for Pakistan as their miserable tour of England nears an end We should be careful what we wish for, of course. Until recently, the idea of England winning every Test of a series would have been greeted with a snort of derision. But while they deserve credit for keeping their foot on Pakistan’s throat, the one-sidedness of the cricket has raised more questions about a format that rarely stops fretting over its future.It’s no good grumbling about the unfettered growth of the T20 franchise circuit when Test cricket is properly contested by only a handful of nations. And it’s no good wondering why this inequality has been allowed to arise when the bigger nations shrug their shoulders at the ICC’s lopsided financial model, and the ICC themselves turn a blind eye to the game’s growing politicisation.As this tour has confirmed, Pakistan are on the wrong side of each of these debates, with the chairman of their cricket board, Mohsin Naqvi, doubling up as the country’s interior minister, and presiding over the farcical culling of almost half their squad between Lord’s and Edgbaston.It all meant the day proceeded along predictable lines, with Harry Brook and Dan Lawrence sniffing out any prospect of a Pakistani comeback by taking 73 from the morning’s first 10 overs while barely breaking sweat.But if there has been one criticism of England, it has been the failure of their batsmen to convert starts into something more meaningful, and here again they promised more than they delivered.Brook had struck the perfect tempo in moving to 75 in three and a quarter hours when he pushed an off-break from Ayub towards midwicket and set off for a single even as Shan Masood swooped on the ball, before running him out comfortably at the non-striker’s end.Might Lawrence reach three figures instead? Moments before lunch, he contrived to chop a widish delivery from Mohammad Imran on to his stumps, and walked off in anguish for 65. Three half-centuries in four innings since his recall have been a good return, but the battle for top-six places is cranking up. This was an opportunity missed.Jamie Smith, batting with a dislocated left index finger sustained in the field on the first day, played some meaty strokes for his third sixty in five innings, only to provide a simple return catch off a leading edge to Razaullah.And while Robinson hit out for his second Test fifty, his dismissal left England with 21 half-centuries from six games this summer, and a lone hundred, by Ben Duckett against New Zealand at Trent Bridge.Unless one of Pakistan’s batsmen can go big tomorrow, this will be the first Test series in England of three matches or more not to feature an individual century since the 1888 Ashes. Harry Brook and Dan Lawrence were two of five England batsmen to pass 50 in their innings This Pakistan side are one of the worst touring teams to ever come to here for a Test seriesNot that any of this troubled Robinson as he performed his now customary demolition of Pakistan’s top order.Ayub’s most recent cricket had been for Jamaica Kingsmen in the Caribbean Premier League, which most sensible set-ups might think was no kind of preparation for red-ball cricket under grey English skies. Sure enough, he completed a pair by wafting hopelessly at his first ball.Cox, keeping in place of the injured Smith, now came up to the stumps for Shafique, who poked at Robinson as if in a trance. Since making 61 at Headingley, Shafique has managed 23 in five innings, and been dismissed in five of his six by Robinson.Duckett put down a slip catch for the third time in the game when Shan Masood flashed at the luckless Gus Atkinson, while Jofra Archer lacked his usual menace. But such is the gulf between the sides that England can afford these blemishes and still win this game at a canter. BROOK’S RARE MISJUDGEMENT It was a rare misjudgment from a player who appeared to be working his way to three figures with precision timing.The relaxed couple of initial strides Harry Brook took after turning to midwicket told you that he thought he had beaten the fielder comfortably.From his perspective, Brook must have believed he had threaded the ball beyond the inner ring. It was the only plausible reason for him taking off for a single.By the third and fourth of what temporarily morphed into a mercy dash, he must have known he was a goner. For contrary to how things seemed, Shan Masood slid and intercepted in one motion, regaining his feet to send a throw on the bounce to the bowler Saim Ayub.Witnessing Ayub gathering cleanly and removing the bails must have been agony for Brook, who jolted his bat into the air as if to emphasise the shock to the system, glancing towards the big screen at Edgbaston as he did so. Replays showed he wasn’t even in the frame.Run outs are the cruellest of dismissals. Neville Cardus called them the ultimate, tragic disruption of cricket’s aesthetic beauty and flow.The kind of innings Brook was putting together was more pragmatic, judging the conditions and playing to them.Acknowledging that a combination of the lush outfield, and a lack of pace on the ball unless Pakistan’s debutant fast bowler Razaullah was operating, would make boundary scoring more difficult, Brook turned his attention to piercing the gaps and running hard in his bid for a first Test hundred in 14 months.His 70-ball half century contained just four fours, but plenty of occasions on which he and fifth wicket partner Dan Lawrence ran the Pakistanis ragged.On the first evening, they appeared to enjoy a telepathic understanding of when a single was on, exploiting the opportunity to disrupt the bowlers’ rhythm by rotating strike.Running well between the wickets is a process that begins from the moment a batsman addresses the delivery: the ability to compute the angle at which the ball is travelling as well as the weight of stroke key.It is actually something that Brook has mastered over the past 12 months, in the knowledge that big-hitting prowess and unconventional accessing of the boundary need a counterpoint, which will only serve to add to the frustration of his departure for 75 on the second morning.During his maiden Twenty20 international hundred against Pakistan at Pallekele at this year’s World Cup, he hurtled through for nine twos, exploiting the pockets of space between fielders and using the extra speed he has developed during sustained devotion to general fitness to successfully take on opponents’ arms.Adding this extra element to his run gathering stems partly from interests outside of cricket. Brook’s sponsorship tie-up with Major League Baseball has left him witness to the training regimes of some of America’s premier athletes.Joining up with Philadelphia Phillies at their spring training in March, he was taken aback by how ‘those guys work their balls off.’ Saying: ‘You can definitely see the difference it makes when you’re stronger, fitter, leaner. The ability to move quicker can make a massive advantage in trying to hit a six or if you’re trying to run a two.’Stealing ones and twos places pressure on the fielding side and can contain demoralising properties.This one going wrong at the end of the first hour of play felt like an aberration. After all, this was just the third run out of Brook’s 41-match Test career. By comparison, fellow Yorkshireman Geoffrey Boycott was involved in 20 in 108 appearances: seven resulting in his own trudging back to the dressing room and 13 for his partners.Brook was not culpable for the first of his three, three years ago in Wellington, when Joe Root dabbed down towards the gully and sold his partner down the river, before he had faced a ball.Then, on the same ground in December 2024, Brook came in at 26 for three, hitting a rapid, counter-attacking 123, before setting off for a run to short midwicket that wasn’t there and being sent packing by the direct hit in his follow through of Nathan Smith, arguably New Zealand’s best fielder.On this occasion, though, he was the wrong side of that coveted century.By Richard Gibson