CRICKET/Pakistan v England, third Test: England will need to get their skates on if they are to win the final Test and square this series. As the winter solstice draws closer, Lahore's days are shorter than those in Multan and Faisalabad, which are further south and west, and the game will suffer accordingly.

So far neither side have managed to raise themselves from a torpor that, even with the spinners operating, has failed to see the quota of 90 overs sent down on any of the 10 playing days. Indeed so slow was the rate allowed to slip in the drawn second Test, which finished with England defending frantically at 164 for six, that the match was depleted by more than 60 overs. In other words only 30 short of another full day's play.

Unless the view is taken that a draw was a worthy result, this tardiness was in the interest neither of England, who having lost the first Test had the chance to regain the upper hand, nor Pakistan, who found themselves in a position to finish off the series.

There is a view that over rates on the subcontinent are by necessity slow. Conditions are hostile to bowlers, with the heat generally an issue. Drinks breaks are more frequent and at this time of year, even if there is provision for making up the overs in the event of the day's play ending before the scheduled close because of bad light or weather, it amounts to nothing more than tokenism. Overs not bowled are lost forever.

The proposed use of Lahore's floodlights to offset any bad light will contribute little. The use of floodlights with the red ball has already been found to be unworkable once the artificial light supersedes the natural.

England have made some attempt to justify the pace of play by suggesting that it is not possible for three seamers to maintain the over rate. "Do you expect them to run back to their mark?" asked the England coach Duncan Fletcher.

What has been happening though is not a malaise peculiar to this part of the world or even this era, but something that has evolved. Two decades ago when they were in their pomp the great West Indian side, which was based around magnificent pace bowling, sent down their overs at such a sluggish rate that to many the cricket became unwatchable.

A pair of batsmen could expect maybe 12 overs an hour, two of which might fly over the head and another two fended off. So perhaps 24 deliveries per hour had scoring potential. But the West Indies would say what is the hurry, we get matches finished in three or four days anyway.

It is this ethos that sustains modern Test cricket. Led by the Australians - whose initiative allowed their bowlers more time to dismiss batsmen on good pitches while removing unpredictable fifth-day pitches, the great leveller, from the equation - scoring rates have reached a sustained level in excess of anything in the game's history.

Games move on apace. There are more Tests completed than ever, many well inside the distance, and all this with an over rate that appears to be in inverse proportion to the rate of scoring.

What is the rush? Bowlers it seems have simply got used to sending down their overs at a certain rate and to alter that would be like breaking into a sprint having trained at a jog.

Another argument is that overs have a different rhythm to them. Fewer maidens are bowled, which means batsmen changing ends and field placings altering accordingly. One strong feature of Michael Vaughan's captaincy is his proactivity in keeping a batsman guessing. Three similar deliveries sent down to three different fields have as much variety as three different balls to the same field.

It is not just England either. In Faisalabad, when for a short period Younis Khan took over the Pakistan captaincy while Inzamam-ul-Haq was off the field, he reminded watchers of a competitor in a sort of supermarket sweep, where his job was to make as many changes to his field as he could in the space of a single over. It all takes time.

However, this match will be a demonstration of England's real intent if not that of Pakistan. The home side, one up in the series, have no need for urgency. They know that with the conditions in favour of a draw it would take a remarkable turnaround for them to lose the game.

England by contrast need all the time they can squeeze out of the Test and it will be instructive to see how many overs they can bowl when it really comes down to it. Then, if they manage to hurry things along to their advantage, they might just sit back and reflect why they could not have done so before.

Guardian Service