Sajid Khan is a player who demands attention, a character whose moustache, however noticeable, isn't half as noticeable as his celebrations. As England's innings imploded on a dramatic afternoon and an old, tired pitch that had held up for nearly seven days of Test cricket finally began to capitulate, there were a few of them.

He is a man who could hardly be more theatrical if he were to put on a scarlet punch bowl and start twirling a stick, and here he found a stage on which he would take center stage. The tourists seemed well on their way to easily equaling Pakistan's first innings total of 366 until the day drew to a close and the ball began to show signs of age, the spinners found a turn and the course of play took a turn.

After 41 overs, England were 210 for two; Four overs later it was 225 for six, their centurion from that game had joined the two who made it big in the dressing room in the last game, and their ambitions had sunk as quickly and colorfully as the sun. In the first two games of this series, England had scored 1,034 runs for nine wickets in 191 overs; Suddenly they had lost four games to 14 in three games.

Joe Root was the first to fall and the unluckiest, sinking a throw from Sajid into leg, then foot and then into the stumps. Ben Duckett, who had scored 114 off 129, tried to drive the same bowler and edged past Salman Agha at slip, and five balls later Sajid got one that curled sharply past Harry Brooks's bat to middle and leg turned. Two balls later, Ben Stokes pushed Noman Ali into a block and the ball went past short leg where Abdullah Shafique dived to take a clever catch. Jamie Smith and Brydon Carse survived the last eight overs under great pressure.

None of that seemed likely as Duckett raised his bat a little earlier, although it was a testament to the bowlers' increasing control that it took him 22 balls and the better part of nine nervy overs to navigate the 90s. Nevertheless, his century was the eighth fastest ever scored in an England opener and, remarkably – given he has only scored four centuries – his fourth appearance on this list.

Duckett surprisingly started England's innings with a leave and then, less surprisingly, continued it with a series of orthodox and reverse sweeps. Those are his specialty, of course, and this was their moment. He has now scored three times as many centuries in Asia as he did in England, plus another 50, and at times it seemed as if he was taunting the fielders with slight changes in angle, condemning them to hopeless sprints around the boundary.

Under Duckett's control, England went on a sprint, scoring 69 in the first 10 overs, all but one of which featured at least a single boundary. Zak Crawley's time in the middle was shorter and more dramatic than his opening partner's and he needed a large dose of luck to reach 27.

He was on 20 and at the non-striker's end when he lunged across the wicket in what he only thought was a likely single against Sajid, and after he turned he wasn't even close to his crease, as the ball was returned to the bowler. However, Sajid allowed his left arm to brush across the stumps and dislodge the bails as he prepared to collect them, giving up some of the lead and giving him the chance to show that he can express desolation almost as well as Joy.

Exactly two overs later, Sajid managed to turn into Crawley's pad as the batter went for a reverse sweep, and the batter responded to the umpire's raised finger by making his way to the dressing room. Duckett had other ideas and called him back for a review, which ended up delaying his departure only briefly: he scored three more runs before another review discovered an advantage and ended his innings.

After Crawley's dismissal, England's pace of scoring slowed and when Noman Ali hit a first-time throw past Joe Root in the first hour of the final session, it was Pakistan's first in 171 tries across the two matches. By this point Ollie Pope had already gone and the 26-year-old seemed comfortable until suddenly he wasn't and Sajid curled a ball past the bat and into the stumps.

It was an unusual day in Multan, rarely sunny and most of the time filtered through a thick, creamy veil of smog that never quite cleared even as things gradually cleared up.

By losing the last five wickets, Pakistan increased their overnight score by 107, with two of them going to the excellent Carse. The debutant scored two runs for just 15 runs in his first 13 overs of the innings and ended up being England's most economical bowler, although Aamir Jamal and Salman spoiled his numbers with 16 runs in his 16th over. He got his revenge by pulling out the former's middle stump with the first ball after lunch to leave Pakistan down nine, and the final wicket fell six overs later when Noman delivered a Jack Leach delivery to deep middle of the wicket, where conveniently Carse was underneath.