Cricket's lost chance

Given the relative paucity of cricket this year, the longest format has emerged as a healer for deprived fans over the past month

Against England this week, Pakistan’s Shan Masood notched up a third consecutive Test century, exhibiting a kind of industry that paid ample obeisance to the character of the city he was batting in, Manchester. The opener’s handling of Stuart Broad and James Anderson was consummate, evide­ntly the performance of a batsman desperate to make up for lost time — Masood is 30 but only 21 Test matches old. Masood’s masterclass in patience was followed by the Pakistani pacers tearing through the English top-order. If Test cricket is your thing, then this was a gift from the heavens: An old-fashioned hundred