Senior pace pair James Anderson and Stuart Broad were the driving force as England bowled Pakistan out for 234 yesterday on day one of the must-win third Test.

Broad and Anderson (four for 17) closed down one end for 28.1 of the 85.1 overs needed at the Sharjah Cricket Stadium — conceding only 30 runs and taking six wickets to kick-start England’s bid to level the series in this final match.

Those outstanding efforts were all the more valuable after third seamer Ben Stokes suffered a worrying injury, leaping for a catch off Samit Patel. It looked like a dislocated right shoulder as he left the field in evident pain, his arm in a makeshift sling.

Only Pakistan captain Misbah-ul-Haq (71) held England up, continuing a sequence of four consecutive half-centuries and sharing a sixth-wicket stand of 80 with Sarfraz Ahmed.

Potentially victims of their own success, England avoided that fate when they came through two overs of batting under lights on four without loss.

Broad’s remarkable figures were testimony to his discipline — eight maiden overs out of 13 bowled — but also the nature of this contest on the slowest of pitches and its even slower outfield.