Close: England 235-6
So, at last, England win a session, and all because Ed Smith opted to go west in search of a young man to bowl some spin. Dom Bess hasn’t taken a Test wicket yet, but he has made a fifty – and proved that he can stand the heat in a kitchen which, when he walked in, had all the smoke alarms going off at once.
He has been expertly shepherded by a more senior son of Somerset, Jos Buttler. Their partnership for the seventh wicket is an unbeaten 125, which is more than double the next best England stand in this match (57). Pakistan were on fire in mid-afternoon, but the evening belongs to England, who lead by 56 and live to fight another session, at least. Thanks for your company: the emails have been as entertaining as the ebb-and-flow.
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78th over: England 235-6 (Buttler 66, Bess 55) The final over of the day: Bess facing Amir, keeping him out, keeping him out – and then creaming a four through the covers off the very last ball. Ah, the audacity of youth.
“Tim.” Yes, John Starbuck. “I don’t use any of those terms myself [75th over], so have no preference. There really ought to be a website for arcane cricket-related insults. Perhaps there is? My main gripe though is people thinking my surname ends in a S as well as starting with one.” Ouch – I plead guilty, but have done some hasty corrections now. “I’m not a coffee company (even though I’ve had a discount there now and again on the strength of it). I believe they picked the name because they’d read Moby-Dick, in which Mr Starbuck is the First Mate, whose gloomy predictions are never believed but all come true.” Classy.
77th over: England 231-6 (Buttler 66, Bess 51) Faheem produces a beauty out of nowhere, jagging away from Buttler’s bat, but it’s too good to find the edge.
Robert Wilson, seeing Simon Horbury in full flow, is back for another bite of the cherry. “Yup, that is a top effort from Bess. Tyro blitheness and self-assurance are a nice little booster package but I’m guessing a debut fifty from a near school-age spinner in a sticky enough situation has to be founded on a base of strongmindedness. That’s Aussie level dogged. Respect.”
76th over: England 230-6 (Buttler 66, Bess 50) Mo Amir returns, which sounds like an attacking move – but Sarfraz gives him just the one slip, as if fretting about the deficit already (it’s 51). Buttler clips Amir for two. Bess may well steal the headlines, but Buttler has been terrific, calm and sober, adjusting to the red ball, while also grabbing every run on offer.
“What do you think England need?” says Nasser, and the person he’s asking is Ian Botham, who knows a bit about improbable reversals. “200,” he says, firmly, as if he’s forgotten the time when 130 was enough.
75th over: England 228-6 (Buttler 64, Bess 50) So Bess passes the little test set by Mr Hussain, the deputy head, and then Buttler pulls Faheem for four. Nasser turns his beady eye on the fielders: “Pakistan starting to look a bit ragged, for the first time.”
Simon Horbury is back, picking up on John Starbuck’s point from the 73rd over. “The Chinese Cut was our name for the Harrow Drive when I were a young ’un. Now which of those would Mr Starbucks prefer?”
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Fifty! to Dominic Bess
That is superb. A gift on leg stump, a confident tuck – but Bess has earned the freebie by playing with great aplomb after coming out into a crisis at 110-6. This is a 20-year-old we’re talking about, on his Lord’s debut, never mind his Test debut. What a moment.
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74th over: England 220-6 (Buttler 57, Bess 49) Bess pulls for a single, Buttler-style, and Nasser Hussain says, “This is the only time I get twitchy, when a young player approaches a milestone.” Come off it Nass, you get twitchy all the time. But point taken: Bess, who has sailed through a proper test of his temperament, now faces another, smaller one – can he play normally for the next few minutes?
73rd over: England 219-6 (Buttler 57, Bess 48) A few more singles off Shadab, including one taken off the last ball by Bess, who is no longer being shielded at all by his senior partner.
“A Harrow drive?” says John Starbuck. “That sounds like a public-school educated denigration, just like the Chinaman used to be, along with the Staffordshire Cut and the ball going Irish.” It may well be – but let’s be fair to the public schools, they’ve produced many fine cricketers, including Buttler and Bess.
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72nd over: England 216-6 (Buttler 56, Bess 46) Abbas continues, and Bess picks up another single with a fluent flick to fine leg. He looks as if he could end up in the top six, just as long as he remembers to take some wickets.
An email arrives from Adam Roberts. “These were Ed’s two out-of-left-field selections, so maybe .... Of course, with his one 1st-class wicket this season, we should have known Dom was being picked for his batting.
“Am I alone,” he wonders, “in my super-immaturity, in saying ‘Yer face’ every time someone says ‘Shadab’?”
71st over: England 213-6 (Buttler 55, Bess 44) Shadab goes round the wicket and Buttler kicks him away. The partnership is 103, the lead 34.
Simon Horbury. meanwhile, is on a roll. “Is it possible that England have adopted the idea that my, now very old, cricket masters occasionally had and have decided to reverse the batting order of the ‘best batsmen’? Might I suggest next time we do it genuinely and open with No 11?” Just don’t expect Jimmy Anderson to thank you.
70th over: England 212-6 (Buttler 55, Bess 43) Abbas returns, and Bess greets him with an imperious square drive, off the back foot. That could have been another off spinner: Carl Hooper.
Buttler then plays a rare false shot – looks like a Harrow drive, turns out to be four leg byes – and that’s the hundred partnership. WinViz reckons England now have a chance of victory – a 2 per cent chance, that is. Mike Atherton and Wasim Akram both feel it’s a bit more than that.
69th over: England 201-6 (Buttler 53, Bess 38) Bess takes another of those tight singles. He needs to be getting through to the close, not committing hara kiri. There are about 40 minutes to go.
Richard Morris is back. “I knew it would all be fine!”
Meanwhile, in other news …
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200 up!
Buttler eases Shadab into the off side for a single, and England are 200-6, which is a whole lot better than 110-6. Anyone daring to dream, apart from Tom van der Gucht?
68th over: England 199-6 (Buttler 52, Bess 37) Hasan bounces Bess and concedes a wide, which may have been a bit harsh. Pakistan, whose Plan A worked so well, seem unsure about Plan B. A few overs ago, Sarfraz raced up to the bowler’s end to remonstrate with Hasan, though, to his (Sarfraz’s) credit, he didn’t send him into the wilderness.
67th over: England 197-6 (Buttler 51, Bess 37) Sky show highlights of Butter’s fifty, and there have been plenty – elegant strokes, evenly divided between extra cover and midwicket. “He’s a game-changer,” says Wasim Akram. Takes one to know one.
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Fifty! to Jos Buttler
Well, this is a rare sight: an Englishman waving his bat in the air. Buttler clips Shadab to midwicket, where a dive doesn’t quite prevent the four. A lovely shot and a fine innings.
66th over: England 192-6 (Buttler 46, Bess 37) A few more singles off Hasan, and these two have put on 81, easily England’s best stand of the match. After an understandably stodgy start, they’ve been rolling along at four an over.
Someone had to say it, and Simon Horbury has. “Make Bess captain... It would be no more ludicrous than having a match of 100 balls per innings, with the last over consisting of ten balls.”
65th over: England 189-6 (Buttler 44, Bess 36) Bess lives dangerously against Shadab, surviving an LBW shout as he misses the googly, and then prodding at thin air when the leg-break arrives. But he survives. Confident, plucky, resourceful, a fizzing fielder: there have been worse picks, and that’s just among the fringe spinners.
Hugh Odling-Smee has a retort for Gary Naylor (64th over). “Well Michael was a better batsman than captain, so he would know.”
64th over: England 189-6 (Buttler 44, Bess 36) England startle the crowd by going into the lead, thanks to another punchy cover drive from Bess, who adds a cut for four and a swat for three as Hasan offers too much width. These two have sailed past the rocks of total ignominy, but real hope is still some way off.
And here’s Gary Naylor. “Dom Bess is reminding me of Michael Atherton’s rather terse description of Chris Schofield – ‘He’s a better batsman than bowler’.”
63rd over: England 177-6 (Buttler 43, Bess 25) Shadab goes for a few comfy singles. The OBO’s loyal readers, like a few people in the crowd, may have nodded off.
62nd over: England 174-6 (Buttler 41, Bess 24) Buttler plays another of his measured pulls for a single. Don’t the umpires realise that having drinks in mid-over messes with our system?
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62nd over: England 173-6 (Buttler 40, Bess 24) Buttler picks up two thanks to another misfield, in the covers, and the deficit is down to six. It’s not the end of the over, but there’s a suspicion that the ball is being changed for going out of shape, and that’s drinks. England are now flirting with respectability, but it’s surely too little, too late.
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61st over: England 171-6 (Buttler 38, Bess 24) Shadab returns with his leg spin, and when he tries a rare googly, Bess eases it for four to third man. He is beginning to look like A Find.
Here’s David Acaster, joining the captaincy debate. “I would make the left bail captain,” he says, “if I thought it would restore Root’s batting.” Well, I know what you mean, but he’s making just as many runs as he was in the ranks – just getting to 50 all the time and 100 less often.
60th over: England 166-6 (Buttler 37, Bess 20) Bess keeps out Mo Amir, in a way that his elders and betters could not, and then he plays the shot of his day, a delicious off drive, on the up, that brings a ripple of Lordly appreciation.
59th over: England 162-6 (Buttler 37, Bess 16) A single to each batsman off Faheem, and a lovely flick-hook from Buttler, which goes for four on the strength of a misfield from Abbas. That was old-school Pakistan. And so the 50 partnership comes up, a credit to both batsmen, and to Ed Smith – the first time his bolder picks have come good.
“Buttler captain?” splutters Simon Horbury, a propos the 56th over. “1. You’re having a laugh. 2. Might happen sooner than later.”
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58th over: England 156-6 (Buttler 32, Bess 15) Buttler clips Amir for a single, fearlessly handing him four balls to have a go at Bess, who has his sensible head on and survives.
Tom van der Gucht is back for more. “Drastic times like this call for drastic measures,” he declares, “and I’d like to think I’m from the Ed Smith school of decisive action. Having given it some consideration, after this test has been completed I’d drop Malan, select Morgan and give him the captaincy, swap Stoneman for Roy and tell Bayliss to focus on the white-ball cricket and ask Farbrace to step up and coach the test team for the foreseeable future.” At the risk of sticking my neck out, I can’t see all of that happening. But Tom is right that something needs to be done about Stoneman, who looked lost today, and has already been sacked as the short-leg fielder.
57th over: England 155-6 (Buttler 31, Bess 15) Bess wafts, for once, at Faheem, and gets a jammy four that might have been a catch to third slip. Sarfraz’s fault for going on the defensive when he’s right on top. That brings up the 150, and Bess’s first foray into double figures. He cashes in with a much better shot, a cover drive for four. The deficit is down to 24 now.
56th over: England 147-6 (Buttler 31, Bess 7) Amir comes round the wicket, looking for the killer reverse swing that Wasim Akram, who is commentating, brought to the 1992 World Cup final. And Buttler sees him off, happy to play out a maiden. Buttler has quietly manipulated the strike, facing 54 balls to Bess’s 33, without appearing to distrust him. Practice for the day when Buttler finds himself captaining England.
55th over: England 147-6 (Buttler 31, Bess 7) Buttler takes a rather tight single into the covers, but gets himself out of a hole with a sprint. He and Bess have done what ministers can only dream of, and halved the deficit. Aha, here comes Amir.
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54th over: England 146-6 (Buttler 30, Bess 7) Buttler picks up another two and a one off Abbas, and in between he may be dropped behind by Sarfraz, who is standing up – a very tough chance as Buttler nicked an inswinger. Buttler has earned that with his positivity, and his unflustered fluency.
I was just wondering where John Starbuck was, when this turned up. “Those of us who have followed England cricket for a while are not masochists, simply resigned. We know things have to get really bad before they can get better, so it’s just part of a very long cycle. I well recall my emotional state at Headingley 1981, so I know that Hope springs eternal. She’s a deity to whom our emotions are sacrificed.” Nicely put.
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53rd over: England 143-6 (Buttler 27, Bess 7) Sarfraz makes a change, but it’s Faheem, not Amir, who returns. Buttler picks up a couple with a leg glance off Faheem, and a single with a glide to third man. The game is suddenly feeling sleepy, although if any team can wake themselves up with a start, it’s Pakistan.
“Afternoon Tim.” Afternoon Simon McMahon. “If Buttler can cut loose here and make, say, 149, giving the England bowlers, say, 130 to bowl at, then you never know I suppose. Though you do, really.” Ha.
“Speaking of Cambridge,” says Ben Reilly, “as somebody who has a ticket for tomorrow and is currently at the Cambridge beer festival, I really hope for it to be over soon so I can get properly drunk without worrying about the morning.” Priorities.
52nd over: England 140-6 (Buttler 24, Bess 7) Bess, getting a bit carried away, goes for a big cut off Abbas and misses, but recovers with a sensible push for a single. Buttler then gets a leading edge which pops up into empty space in the covers and brings him a streaky three.
Here’s Tom van der Gucht. “I’ve been out for a pub lunch and spent some time sat in the sun, but I don’t think this game is over yet... If Buttler can tap into his IPL form and cream out a quickfire 150 backed up by Bess, Broad and Wood all cashing in with 30s against a tiring attack, we’d still be in with a sniff of a chance. Especially if Anderson could hang around for an obstinate 2-hour-long 12...” Well, that answers the question from the 44th over about dreamers or masochists.
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51st over: England 135-6 (Buttler 20, Bess 6) Dom Bess guides a two to backward point and moves to his highest Test score. Hasan responds with a feisty bouncer, which Bess does well to jag out of the way of, and a yorker, which he digs out. Well played the kid, as Jose Mourinho would say.
Robert Wilson is back, answering my question from the 46th over. “Which university, you say? Put it like this; if you plough through the archives of Cambridge University’s august sporting records, you will find my name twice. Being the first soccer player to be sent off in their entire history is all very well but I think that getting sacked from the St Catharine’s Novices Rowing Eight for cheating on the dawn run to the river by taking a taxi was my finest moment.”
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50th over: England 133-6 (Buttler 20, Bess 4) A single to each batsman, off Abbas, and a clip for two from Buttler. There hasn’t been a wicket for a full eight overs. Sarfraz must be tempted to summon the extra snap of Amir.
49th over: England 129-6 (Buttler 17, Bess 3) Buttler is seeing the ball well and getting a big stride in to stymie the swing.
“Certainly England are not awful,” says Ram Prasad, “but young guns from Pakistan have come good in this match and 4 half centuries have hurt England a lot. Just that the impetus to propel the score when the chips are down, is lacking from Jos Buttler and Ben Stokes. Particularly Jos as he is red hot from a terrific IPL stint. Could he prove me wrong today?” I’m not sure impetus is what’s lacking, especially from those two – they both have tremendous energy. What’s been missing is nous, from the moment Joe Root declined to bowl first on Thursday morning.
48th over: England 128-6 (Buttler 16, Bess 3) Bess finally comes to the party, albeit unintentionally, as, facing Abbas, he tries to withdraw the bat and gets a bottom edge to third man for three. They all count.
“Desperate times, desperate measures,” says Jon Millard. “Can we still call up Chris Cowdrey?”
47th over: England 124-6 (Buttler 15, Bess 0) After a wary start, Buttler finds his groove with a front-foot pull off Hasan, and celebrates with two fours through the off side – a glide and a cover drive. Given something to cheer at last, the crowd go wild, or as wild as they go at Lord’s.
Here’s Dave Seare, with an email that’s more of a one-act play.
“The phone rings at Lord’s.
‘Er, hello.’
‘Good morning, I’d like to speak to [insert England player name] please.’
‘I’m sorry Sir, he’s just gone out to bat.’
‘That’s ok, I’ll wait...’
Tip your waiter, we’re here all week.”
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46th over: England 112-6 (Buttler 3, Bess 0) We have a run! Buttler hooks, or swats, Abbas for a controlled single to fine leg. Bess, again, keeps the straight ones out. He looks like finishing his first Test without any wickets, but he has shown a good temperament.
“Dear Tim,” says Robert Wilson. “I’d hate to be guilty of reflexive Celtic Fringe anti-Englishness. I love you guys. You fed, clothed, housed and educated this particular Irish urchin. Then you sent me to your best university. Thanks a bunch. That was incredibly nice of you. And has confirmed my decided Anglophilia. So it is with great pain and deep sympathy that I point out that we are quite clearly MUCH better than you at Test cricket.” Nice one. So which university?
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However grim things get, we can always rely on Gary Naylor. “Writing a quiz recently,” he begins, classically, “I recalled that Zaheer Abbas made 240 at The Oval in 1974 (I was allocated locker 240 when I went to the big school soon after). In 44 years watching cricket, this feels as low an ebb as at any time since. 4-0, 58 all out, The 100 and now this.”
It seems we’ve reached peak Naylor.
So what do you reckon – have England been awful, or just not as good as Pakistan? Sarfraz and his young team have given the sort of performance that Jurgen Klopp is planning for this evening: an underdog masterclass. OK, they’re not up against Real Madrid. But England are strong at home, and normally formidable in May – they’ve never lost a Test that has started this early in the summer. Send us an email (and if you sent one a bit earlier, please send again to tim.delisle at gmail, as my Guardian email is down) or a tweet.
45th over: England 111-6 (Buttler 2, Bess 0) Another maiden, from Hasan Ali to Dom Bess, who manages to play a solid straight bat to some naggingly accurate deliveries. And that’s tea. A moment that usually brings balm to an English brow, but here it’s more a case of rampant embarrassment.
After England had finally had a good hour, Pakistan bounced back with a sensational one, taking four wickets for 19 in no time. England are minus 68 for 6, and the only doubt is whether Jos Buttler can bash a few defiant fours and make Pakistan bat again.
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44th over: England 111-6 (Buttler 2, Bess 0) A maiden from Mohammed Abbas to Jos Buttler, who was standing outside his crease to reduce the risk of LBW – so Sarfraz Ahmed came up to the stumps, adding sheer courage to his collection of strengths as a keeper-captain.
“Why the doom & gloom?” said Richard Morris, a few minutes ago. “Root will bat safely for hours, Buttler will survive comedy moment after comedy moment, we’ll have a lead of 150, 8 for from Sir James, Ed Smith will look like a genius, all is right in the world.” Are cricket fans dreamers, masochists, or both?
43rd over: England 111-6 (Buttler 2, Bess 0) Well, this is a rout. And if it weren’t for Simon Burnton, you wouldn’t have heard about it because I’ve been having almost as many technical problems as England’s batsmen. Big thanks to Simon, and many commiserations to Ed Smith on finding, like a few others before him, that he has taken over a shaky ship.
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42nd over: England 110-6 (Buttler 1, Bess 0) Root has now got 10 half-centuries since his last ton. That was a fine delivery from Abbas, and given that he is the only Englishman to even offer some token resistance here it seems unfair to be overly critical, but that’s not so good. Anyway, here, finally, is Tim. Bye again!
WICKET! Root lbw b Abbas 68 (England 110-6)
Curtains.
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REVIEW! Is Root out here?
Pakistan think so, the umpire thinks so, and Root has to review it in the circumstances.
41st over: England 110-5 (Root 68, Buttler 1) Hasan Ali is back. Root, whose innings has so far been exemplary, drives through the covers for four. A single gives Buttler half the over to deal with, and he is so committed to being unButtlerish that he leaves the ball whenever he can, even when he very nearly can’t - the last goes two inches wide of off stump, too close for comfort.
Alerts:
— Bharath Seervi (@SeerviBharath) May 26, 2018
England have lost by an innings only three times at Lord's; last was v SA in 2003.
Pakistan have won by an innings only once in England - Leeds, 1987.
Pakistan marching towards a historic win.#EngvPak
40th over: England 105-5 (Root 63, Buttler 1) Pakistan know that Buttler will do as Buttler does, so move three slips into position as Mohammad Amir takes aim. A maiden is the almost inevitable result. But the slips very nearly got some action, Amir’s final delivery a peach that tempts Buttler into a drive and zips just past the edge.
39th over: England 105-5 (Root 63, Buttler 1) That is a ludicrous way to get out in this situation. That dismissal was so soft it was practically liquid. It was a gaseous dismissal. A damp fart of a dismissal. The question now is whether England can make Pakistan bat again.
WICKET! Stokes c sub b Shadab 9 (England 104-5)
Stokes mishits, sends the ball looping apologetically into the hands of the man at midwicket. He hangs his head. He shakes his head. He takes his head back to the dressing room.
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38th over: England 103-4 (Root 62, Stokes 9) By the way, it’s still Simon here, banging on while Tim sorts out a few technical issues. And Mohammad Amir is also still going, now seven overs into his second spell.
Even acknowleding the wonder of Amir's wicket-ball, England's keeper is rapidly developing an issue with straight balls. Five of Bairstow's last six dismissals in England have been bowled or LBW. #ENGvPAK pic.twitter.com/XaDLMuaO9l
— The Cricket Prof. (@CricProf) May 26, 2018
37th over: England 100-4 (Root 61, Stokes 8) England reach triple figures with a splendid shot from Stokes, spanking the ball through midwicket. He had at that stage his two of the three deliveries he’d faced for four. But then he’s very nearly out next ball, which sends him back into his shell. Actually the way the ball flew off the fielder’s foot could only really have happened if it was already heading upwards, rather than down, but it was very hard to tell in real time.
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No he isn't!
The ball bounced a foot before the fielder at short leg, and the TV directors had the perfect angle to show it. That would have been a fluke of the cruellest kind for a team already struggling.
REVIEW! Is Stokes out here?
The ball flew off the bat, into a fielder, into the air and was caught. But did it, perchance, at some stage hit the ground? We’re going to find out!
36th over: England 95-4 (Root 60, Stokes 4) England had half a good session. At drinks, they had a semblance of stability, a foothold in the game at last. Moments later, it’s gone. The delivery that did for Bairstow was a cracker, and an absolute nightmare for a new batsman, moving quite late, and quite a lot. Stokes then comes in and cracks his first ball past square leg for four, but the hole England are hiding in just got a whole lot deeper.
WICKET! Bairstow b Amir 0 (England 91-4)
And another one! A bit of inswing there, and it flies inside the bat to clip middle and off!
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WICKET! Malan c Sarfraz Ahmed b Mohammad Amir 12 (England 91-3)
That’s edged, and two balls after drinks Malan has gone!
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35th over: England 91-2 (Root 60, Malan 12) Malan sweeps the ball but not off the middle or particularly near it; the ball goes in the air but over the fielder and away for four, his first boundary of the day and finally taking him, after 46 deliveries, out of single figures. And that’s drinks, at which point I’m going to hand over to Tim de Lisle. You can drop him an email here. Bye!
34th over: England 85-2 (Root 59, Malan 7) It’s a good day for the Roots.
1st XI v 1st XI
— Sheffield Collegiate (@SheffieldColCC) May 26, 2018
1st XI 186/5 (46)
End of Over 46: 5 runs, William Root 76 (103), Jack Timby 6 (15), Paul Hilton 8-2-31-0
0 0 0 4 1 0https://t.co/Qou1HJ2CJ2#playcricketscorerpro
33rd over: England 82-2 (Root 56, Malan 7) Shadab bowls a full toss, by a margin his worst delivery of the innings, and Root hammers it through midwicket for four. After 62 balls he had scored 22; 31 deliveries later he had his half-century.
32nd over: England 77-2 (Root 51, Malan 7) Fifty up for Root! Again third man is his aim, and this time the ball goes between the slips and gully and reaches the rope! That’s Root’s sixth half-century in his last nine Test innings; on only one of those occasions has he scored more than 61.
“Can’t disagree with the positive assessments of the demeanour and general niceness of the Pakistan team,” writes Brian Withington, “but do they really have to be quite so unnecessarily competent at playing the game too?”
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31st over: England 72-2 (Root 46, Malan 7) Root tries another nurdle to third man but fluffs his lines, and comes pretty close to chopping into his stumps. Instead the ball runs through Sarfraz’s legs and he gets four.
30th over: England 66-2 (Root 43, Malan 6) Root takes a couple from the last delivery. There hasn’t been a maiden since lunch, with England very slightly picking up the pace, scoring a positively freewheeling 29 runs off 10 overs.
29th over: England 64-2 (Root 39, Malan 6) Shadab bowls, Malan leaves and Asad Shafiq at short leg diverts the ball very gently back onto the stumps. Pakistan celebrate, and the bails came off so slowly and unobtrusively for a while it’s not clear why, but replays eventually show that Malan’s toe was just about grounded. “Completely agree with Jon Salisbury,” writes Jimbob on Twitter. “This Pakistan team are ever so lovely, have been ever since the hero that is Misbah took over.”
28th over: England 63-2 (Root 38, Malan 6) After a five-over spell at the start of the innings, Mohammad Amir is back for more, and England take some more sharp runs. This time Malan runs two but the second was a little optimistic - he grounds his bat not a moment too soon, and a direct hit (and it didn’t miss by much) would have done for him.
27th over: England 61-2 (Root 38, Malan 4) Shadab gets a lot of turn, and it goes past Malan’s bat, past his pads, past the stumps, clips Sarfraz’s gloves and the batsmen run three byes. “I know they’re winning but is this the nicest Pakistan team to tour here?” wonders Jon Salisbury. They certainly seem a delightful bunch, but perhaps a two-Test series isn’t long enough to build up proper enmity.
26th over: England 58-2 (Root 38, Malan 4) Hasan bowls, Root tries to drive through the covers but the ball clips the bottom of his bat and goes wide of third slip for four instead.
25th over: England 54-2 (Root 34, Malan 4) Shadab bowls, and Root cuts late for four. Fifteen of his 34 runs, including all his boundaries, have come with variations of that shot.
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24th over: England 46-2 (Root 28, Malan 3) Malan pulls Hasan; it’s a handsome shot, but there’s a fielder in place to deal with it and he only gets a single. And then Root takes a silly single! He works the ball to cover and sets off, and Imam collects smartly and throws back to the striker’s end, where Malan had given up - it was either missing, or he was going to be out by a good six yards. It missed.
23rd over: England 44-2 (Root 26, Malan 2) Root cuts Shadab to third man for three. The first session was largely pretty slow, but they appear to have been thoroughly energised by their lunch.
Brilliant, brutal fasting bowling from Hasan Ali, who has been searching for that ball which hit Malan. As shown below, the first was too wide, and Malan could avoid it; the second was too short; the third was absolutely perfect. #ENGvPAK pic.twitter.com/3VdYsvE9Uk
— The Cricket Prof. (@CricProf) May 26, 2018
22nd over: England 39-2 (Root 22, Malan 1) Crack! Hasan bowls short to Malan, who reacts late and can’t get his head out of the way. It smacks him on the side of the helmet, towards the front - so not on the side of the head - pretty effectively dismantling it. That is vicious. A physio comes on to assess the batsman’s health, but after an extended pause he dons a reassembled helmet and plays on.
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21st over: England 38-2 (Root 22, Malan 1) Shadab gets the session started, and after five dot balls Malan tickles one to deep midwicket and takes a single. Four of his last six innings have brought six runs or fewer.
The players are on their way back out. If Pakistan have the better of this session as well, the game is surely up.
Lunch: England 37-2 (England trail by 142 runs with eight second-innings wickets remaining)
Another good session for Pakistan. Root has certainly taken his time, but is looking fairly assured. So, that’s something.
20th over: England 37-2 (Root 22, Malan 0) Hasan bowls, and at no point in the over does bat meet ball.
Beginning to wonder if England's performance in this Test is a) A noble protest on behalf of supporters against Lord's ticket, drink and food prices and ECB cash-grabbing b) An avante-garde Turner Prize entry or c) Both.
— Danno (@d4nno_) May 26, 2018
19th over: England 37-2 (Root 22, Malan 0) Root takes a single off the fourth ball, giving Shadab a couple of deliveries at the left-handed Malan, which he’s very excited about. A crowd of close fielders is brought in, but Malan comfortably survives. One more over before lunch.
18th over: England 36-2 (Root 21, Malan 0) Hasan bowls a bit wide, and Root drive it for an imperious four. “If Stoneman plays fully forward to that ball, he hits it with his bat, or it hits his pad outside the line of the stumps,” notes Gary Naylor. “It looked unplayable, turning and keeping low, but it wasn’t.” This is absolutely the case. Shadab has got the ball spinning pretty hard, but the batsman need not to make his life easy.
17th over: England 31-2 (Root 16, Malan 0) Some spin, then, from Shadab, and he almost immediately gets one to turn viciously of the rough and jag into Stoneman’s pad. The batsman pushes at the next one, nicks it, and it goes between the keeper and first slip and away for four. So he retreats cautiously, and instead of pushing forward to deal with the ball he lingers on the back foot and is then helpless when it turns and heads for the stumps. That’s well bowled, but technically poor from Stoneman.
WICKET! Stoneman b Shadab 9 (England 31-2)
Shadab gives Stoneman a bit of a work-out, which ends with the batsman entirely unsure what to do with himself. So he does nothing very much, and the ball spins between bat and pad before clipping off stump!
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16th over: England 26-1 (Stoneman 5, Root 15) Stoneman could be under just too much pressure to perform. With an average of 29, five 50s, no score above 60 and all sorts of question marks dangling over his head like angels’ halos, he desperately needs a decent knock. This may become that, but so far it has been very slow going. It’s another maiden, and Stoneman has taken 41 deliveries over his five runs.
15th over: England 26-1 (Stoneman 5, Root 15) Another maiden, from Faheem to Root. Abbas is currently the most expensive of the bowlers in this innings, with his five overs going for 1.6 runs each.
14th over: England 26-1 (Stoneman 5, Root 15) Hasan Ali, whose four wickets in the first innings included that of Root, is denied a first of this innings, though it did always look like it had pitched too wide. Then Stoneman pushes through the covers, and it takes a fine bit of fielding to limit the damage to two runs.
Not out!
It pitched outside leg. Quite a long way outside leg.
REVIEW! Is Stoneman out lbw here?
The umpire says no. Pakistan say, why on earth not?
13th over: England 24-1 (Stoneman 3, Root 15) And Root sends his very next delivery to the rope! It’s a bit wide, and cut very nicely indeed. Indeed, it’s such a fine shot Root takes the remainder of the over off.
12th over: England 20-1 (Stoneman 3, Root 11) Hasan Ali comes on. Root has faced 33 balls in this innings, and 24 in the first, and has yet to score a boundary. The last time he batted twice in a Test and failed to score a boundary was in Sharjah in 2015, and before that it had only happened against New Zealand at Headingley the same year. He has already scored as many runs in this innings as in those four combined.
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11th over: England 19-1 (Stoneman 3, Root 10) A change of bowling, and Faheem Ashraf comes on. His first over is a maiden, to Stoneman.
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10th over: England 19-1 (Stoneman 3, Root 10) A strangled appeal from the bowler as the ball thunders into Root’s pad, but it was moving - quite a lot - across the batsman and heading wide of leg stump. Meanwhile, what is going on with the photo of Mohammad Abbas on his Cricinfo profile page? All his team-mates have delightful studio portraits, but his appears to have been stolen from 1976.
9th over: England 17-1 (Stoneman 2, Root 9) The pressure remains on. England are in survival mode, playing within themselves, reining in the aggression and the ambition. One run off the over.
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8th over: England 16-1 (Stoneman 2, Root 8) Abbas bowls across the left-handed Stoneman, the ball moving a little off the slope, forcing a shot and a miss.
7th over: England 13-1 (Stoneman 2, Root 5) Amir and Abbas are both producing some excellent, disciplined, hostile bowling, with very little loose stuff for the batsmen to tuck into, and some good fielding in the deep when the batsmen threaten the boundary. It is all, in short, good stuff. The batsmen are therefore reliant on sharp running to keep the scoreboard ticking over, and they have already offered a couple of vague sniffs of a potential run-out. Then with his fifth delivery Amir finds the edge, but it lands short of second slip!
6th over: England 10-1 (Stoneman 0, Root 5) Root is hogging the strike here: for the second successive over he faces all six deliveries and gets a single off the last.
5th over: England 7-1 (Stoneman 0, Root 2) Amir spends most of the over bowling nicely across Root from round the wicket, but he gets his line wrong a couple of times: one is straight and wide of leg stump, and it flicks Root’s pad and goes down the ground for four leg byes, and the last is into the body and worked away for a single.
4th over: England 2-1 (Stoneman 0, Root 1) Both of these batsmen were out for four in the first innings. If there’s a silver lining to the cloud that is Cook’s premature departure, it’s that after scoring an attention-hogging 70 with his first knock he has at least shared round the ignominy (though his catching had already gone quite a long way towards doing that).
3rd over: England 1-1 (Stoneman 0, Root 0) A maiden from Amir. “Geoffrey Boycott has just said: ‘If I was in the dressing room mine would be a very short, sharp, speech, because I think people remember them better than talking forever for a long time,’” writes Ben Attenborough. “Inevitably Geoffrey then went on to talk for a very, very, long time about what he would say to the players.”
WICKET! Super piece of bowling from Abbas, who traps Cook in front for one.
— Sky Sports Cricket (@SkyCricket) May 26, 2018
Watch on Sky Sports Cricket or follow our #EngvPak blog: https://t.co/7HVYYbcTrj pic.twitter.com/w4evCJ06Er
2nd over: England 1-1 (Stoneman 0, Root 0) Mohammad Abbas takes the ball at the other end. Might the manner of his dismissal add a little motivation for him? “Remind me - when did it become acceptable to bounce out a number 11?” wonders Ranil Dissanayake. “Didn’t England go all up in arms about this when they were getting it from Mitchell Johnson?” It was perhaps a little legtheorish. Anyway, he aims at the stumps, and is rapidly rewarded.
WICKET! Cook lbw b Abbas 1 (England 1-1)
Cook is trapped absolutely plumb in the second over of the day, and barely even considers a review before heading back to the pavilion!
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1st over: England 1-0 (Cook 1, Stoneman 0) Mohammad Amir opens the bowling. With the sun shining and the pitch drier than it was in the first couple of days, these appear close to ideal batting conditions. But can England ignore the scoreboard and make hay?
So, it begins. This is a big session for England: they have not been the better team for any of the match’s first six, a trend they need to reverse sharpish.
Innings change: Pakistan lead by 179 runs
So with Babar Azam unable to return to the crease, Pakistan’s first innings ends with their score very nearly double England’s. England need 350 runs at the very least from their second knock. Let’s see how that goes...
WICKET! Abbas c Bairstow b Wood 5 (Pakistan 363-9)
Wood decides to aim for Abbas’s chin, rather than the stumps. The No11 does well to get out of the way of the first couple of bouncers, but the third is too low to be duckable and he instead fends it away with his glove, and Bairstow dives to his right to take the catch.
114th over: Pakistan 363-8 (Amir 24, Abbas 5) Abbas again uses gets off strike with a leg bye, and then blammo! Amir thumps the ball back down the ground for four!
I’ve had several emails asking for the link to the BBC’s audio (only available to those outside the UK). Here it is:
113th over: Pakistan 356-8 (Amir 19, Abbas 4) At the other end, Amir seems keen most of all on sticking around. As a result, Wood bowls a maiden.
112th over: Pakistan 356-8 (Amir 19, Abbas 4) Broad bowls one short, and Abbas clubs it away to the long-on boundary to equal his all-time top score in quite literally a stroke. It was also a no-ball. A couple of deliveries later he has a totally wild swing and gets only a little bat on the ball, enough to keep it away from both stumps and defenders. Still, Abbas’s batting philosophy is clear: go big or go home.
111th over: Pakistan 351-8 (Amir 19, Abbas 0) Mohammed Abbas (top score in nine Test innings: 4*), is on strike, and he survives five deliveries before one flicks off a pad and they run a leg bye. St John’s Wood is bathed in sunshine, with flags flapping in a pretty strong wind.
Out come the batsmen! Now, how much trouble can this final pair cause this morning? It looks like Mark Wood will be the first to test them.
It’s worth pointing out, though I don’t doubt that the England squad have worked extremely hard since they got together on Monday, and a pre-game kickabout has become a traditional part of their preparations. Still, this close to the action it could be a distraction.
Just a thought. England are playing football on the outfield just now while Pakistan are doing crickety things. It was the same this time yesterday @Simon_Burnton.
— Gary Naylor (@garynaylor999) May 26, 2018
Jimmy Anderson has a pre-cricket chat:
We’re obvously behind in the game. It’s down to us to get this last wicket and then put on a good show with the bat. If we can match what Pakistan get in this innings, it gives us something to bowl at.
Potentially in hindsight yes but I also think we didn’t do ourselves justice with the bat. Again with the ball, I think we bowled pretty well yesterday and on another day I think we could have bowled them out much cheaper.
He’s then asked about England bowling the wrong length, and his statistically better performance from the Nursery End:
Yesterday I didn’t think the ball did as much as the first day. We want to bowl that fuller length and find that edge, it depends on the batsman you bowl at.
We talk a lot about length, but if you’re not making the batsman play it doesn’t matter what length you bowl. I like bowling this end when the ball’s swinging. My grouping is a lot better from this end in terms of line.
And then about Stokes taking the second new ball yesterday, and all those dropped catches:
I didn’t feel in particularly great rhythm from this end. It’s just the way it goes. As a captain, you want your in-form bowlers to take the new ball and I was probably down the pecking order a bit yesterday.
We met up on Monday, and we put so much work in on the catching, in the slips in particular. It’s frustrating, but they’re not doing it on purpose. We’ve got areas to improve and the catching is one of them. We’ve put in a lot of work trying to get that better.
Weather watch: it has rained overnight in north London but currently it’s brighter than it was at any stage yesterday, and no further rain is forecast until this evening. So, we’re all set.
Hello world!
So, day three. Pakistan lead by 166, with one first-innings wickets remaining, Babar Azam having been ruled out for the remainder of the series with a fractured forearm. England’s position in the match is bad, and the tourists have a chance to turn that to downright terrible in the first hour of the day. And then England have to bat, and they have to do it better than they did on day one. Here’s some day-two reporting and reaction to while away the dark, dreary pre-cricket hours:
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