Then the fours dried up and the innings started to drift with only 47 runs coming from 29 overs in the afternoon session.
In fairness to Pakistan, Waqar Younis bowled superbly straight after lunch, but the tourists had been seriously worried about losing. Why else would off-spinner Saqlain Mushtaq switch to a negative over-the-wicket line to Marcus Trescothick having beaten the left-hander several times from the other side of the stumps?
Graham Thorpe said later that the ball had gone soft which made it harder to hit boundaries. Yet, that's no excuse for not looking for singles with positive running like we did in the first innings.
Three runs per over after lunch would have kept England in sight, but by tea the situation had changed.
While the draw was still favourite, the only possible winners were Pakistan and with the threat of defeat gone, Saqlain, Waqar and Wasim Akram had the freedom to show what world-class bowlers they are.
Saqlain took a couple of his wickets with no-balls but I won't be holding that against umpire David Shepherd. At that stage, England would have wanted all Shep's attention to be at the other end of the pitch.
The third umpire could have had a quiet word via the intercom to say that the TV cameras were picking up on the no-balls, but the men in the middle might not have appreciated that in the heat of battle.
I drove home from Old Trafford on Monday night feeling an opportunity had been lost.
But the one thing everyone seems to have overlooked in their post-mortems is that two key players - Nasser Hussain and Craig White - were missing.
And let's not forget how much things have changed in the last 18 months when we're unhappy that we've only drawn a series.
