Pakistan 344 needs 36 runs to bat England 267 and 112 (Root 33, Noman 6-42, Sajid 4-69)

Pakistan are on the verge of their first home series win since 2021 after dismissing England by 112 points, leaving them just 36 points away from victory in this third and final Test in Rawalpindi.

Just like in the first innings and indeed in the victorious second Test in Multan, Noman Ali and Sajid Khan took the spoils, taking all ten wickets. It was Noman's turn and he sank match point with 6 for 42, a sixth five-wicket haul, while Sajid took 4 for 69, a second 10-wicket haul of his 10-Test career after 6 for 128 on the first day.

The pair walked away hand in hand at the end of the innings, enjoying the glory of bringing about England's collapse on the third day, with the final seven wickets falling for just 46, and the fact that their introductions turned the series on its head . Since being added to the squad after the tourists took a 1-0 lead, they have managed 39 wickets between them – Noman's left-arm spin took 20 at 13.85, while Sajid's off-breaks took 19 wickets at 21.01 created.

And yet things started quite quietly for England. Granted, they started Saturday trailing by 53 at 24 for 3. But in Root and Brook, they had two batters who could erase that deficit and then some.

As Brook began the 13th over by beating Sajid for successive four-man attacks – first through cover, then across the halfway line in attack – the more pessimistic Pakistan fans might have wondered whether the Yorkshire pair were about to get into another game would. Tipping partnership. After all, it was these two who scored a total of 454 points in the first Test in Multan.

However, that was before Sajid and Noman joined the show. And after the former adjusted his line to keep Brook honest, the latter followed a slow attack with a much faster one that fell into the hands of Mohammad Rizwan late on. Pakistan's lead had been reduced to 11 but the first domino had fallen. Others duly followed.

Stokes' problems with spin continued and inexplicably led to a direct throw from Noman, expecting the ball to turn over the wicket, but it never came. Jamie Smith's attack on Sajid was almost as bad as he was bowled off stump with a wild swing that belied the sensitivity he had shown with a punishing 89 in the first innings.

Just four balls after Smith's dismissal, England took the lead and any hopes of extending that in any meaningful way ended when Root was caught by a pearler from Noman for a lead of eight. Perfect dip on a length to pull the right-hander forward around the wicket before he had just enough spin – it was a performance the 38-year-old had served up a few times before, but only Root was good enough to to meet him. A

Sajid moved in to cut off the tail, Yorking Gus Atkinson before hitting back Rehan Ahmed's leg stump for his second 10-wicket haul of the match. And it looked like he had scored a second fiver in the match when Shoaib Bashir was adjudged lbw on the sweep.

A cursory DRS check returned a positive result for the No.11 as the impact on the pad occurred outside the off-stump. The reprieve only yielded two extra runs as Noman caught Leach as he missed the attack and fired a shot past the advancing left-hander, who was deftly overpowered by Rizwan.