Misbah-ul-Haq, the Pakistan captain, believes that Mohammad Amir can now begin his new life as a Test cricketer after the left-arm bowler, on his return to the scene of the 2010 spot-fixing scandal, claimed the final wicket in a 75-run victory against England.
Amir cleaned up the stumps of No11 Jake Ball to see the home side bowled out for 207 in their pursuit of 283 and spark scenes of joy for the tourists, who collectively dropped to the ground and performed the press-up celebration that had followed Misbah’s first-innings century.
Yasir Shah was named man of the match after the leg-spinner continued his hold over the English batsmen, with his four for 69 in the doomed chase giving him 10 for the Test.
Amir, who finished with two for 39, can now look back on happier memories at the ground where his world turned upside down six years ago when he was caught deliberately bowling no-balls against England in a Test, subsequently jailed and then banned from the game for five years. Misbah said: “That was a special moment for him, that could be the start of a new life. I hope he will perform like that and proves to everybody he is a good man now, a good human being. He’s lucky he got another chance but it’s a new start for him.”
Alastair Cook, the England captain, blamed “naive” batting for the defeat, with none of his batsmen reaching 50 as Yasir spun a web for the second time in the match. His side are 1-0 down going into the second Test at Old Trafford starting on Friday and Cook insists lessons must now be learned fast.
He said: “We were 100 runs light in the first innings and for a leg-spinner to get six on day two is frustrating. It’s disappointing but the beauty of a four-match series is there is a chance to come back.
“We had a few poor shot selections to certain types of balls. That was obvious to see. We played some naive shots to certain angles and we fell into traps. We are an open side so it will be brought up but shouting at each other is not going to get you very far. If you look at our lineup it’s an inexperienced one and some of that showed. You can talk all you want but it is about doing it.”
The captain added: “We have three days to go away and work on it. It’s never nice losing at Lord’s and seeing the opposition celebrating at the end.”
The celebrations in question, in which Pakistan’s team performed and gave a salute to the flag above their dressing room balcony, were a nod to the army bootcamp undergone by the squad in Abbottabad prior to the tour and while Cook let slip some mild frustration at their excessiveness, they could become a feature of the series.
Misbah said: “The team was really hoping we could get a chance to do it. The one thing we learned from the camp was those army people get not much salary but for this they want to sacrifice their life. That’s a big motivation for us, so we are putting in effort for that flag.”
Cook, who spoke glowingly about the efforts of Chris Woakes after the all‑rounder became the first player to take 11 wickets in a Lord’s Test but end up on the losing side, are likely to have Jimmy Anderson and Ben Stokes back for Old Trafford following injury but insisted their absence here was not to blame.
He said: “That’s not the reason we lost. I would hate for that to come across like that. We lost heavily to Australia at Lord’s last year and bounced back very quickly, winning the next two Tests. It’s not all doom and gloom. Weeks like this see you become a more hardened cricketer.”
