After two days, England find themselves chasing the game. If Chris Woakes’s heroics with the ball pegged Pakistan back to 339, the expectation, as the clouds rolled over, was that the trio of left-arm pace bowlers, swingers of the ball, would find the conditions and the vulnerable England middle order to their liking.
Instead, they found themselves prey to the briliant leg-spin of Yasir Shah, as if time had been reversed and we were back in the United Arab Emirates. After a brief and fruitless foray from the Nursery end, Yasir spent much of the afternoon operating with the Pavilion behind him.
His was an irresistible display of his art. Only Alastair Cook, who rode his luck and batted for three and a half hours for 81, and, for a while, Joe Root, with whom he added 110 for the second wicket, offered any real substance to the England innings. But Yasir tempted Root into an indiscretion, toyed with and then disposed of both James Vince and Gary Ballance without too much trouble, bowled Jonny Bairstow and then, switching ends once more, having Moeen Ali lbw, to finish the day with five for 64.
England thus finished on 253 for seven, 86 behind on the first innings with Woakes on 31 and Stuart Broad 11. Earlier Woakes and Broad had finished off the Pakistan innings, with two wickets apiece, including that of Misbah-ul-Haq for 114, Woakes, comfortably England’s best bowler, ending with well-deserved figures of six for 60.
This Pakistan attack was always going to offer a significantly stronger challenge to England than they found against Sri Lanka, not just in the quality of the bowlers as such, but in the angles they would pose.
Has any previous England side faced a pace attack comprising exclusively left-handers? Even within that there is variety: the whippy swing of Mohammad Amir, with the pitter-patter run and blurringly fast arm that characterised Wasim Akram, the greatest of them all; Wahab Riaz’s bursts of speed; and the clever manipulation of Rahat Ali. Having Yasir take over one end allows Misbah to rotate his bowlers without overstraining their workload.
Those who might have anticipated a hostile reception for Amir on his return to the scene of the crime were disabused. When he batted there was general indiference. As he took the ball to bowl the first over, there was a smattering of applause and a few boos, but done more for effect than out of malice. His opening spell went unrewarded, though, as Cook, en route to what was the second fastest half‑century of his career, went off at a lick. Instead it was Rahat who removed Alex Hales cheaply, deftly caught at third slip.
The advent of Root at three saw him play with no less aplomb than he had done at four, his back-foot shots square of the wicket in good order. Cook’s innings, meanwhile, had not been unblemished. When 22, he edged Amir to first slip where Mohammad Hafeez dropped the low chance. Later, after lunch, on 55 now, he edged the first ball of a new spell from the same bowler to the keeper Sarfraz Ahmed and he, too, made a mess of the catch.
Cook, England’s most accomplished player of spin, was coping well with Yasir, who almost spins himself off his feet in his effort to put revolutions on the ball. A boundary that took him to 61 saw him overtake Sunil Gavaskar as the most prolific opener of them all.
Shortly after, though, with Yasir at the Pavilion end, Root, on 48 and eyeing up the Tavern boundary, tried to slog-sweep and succeeded only in sending a high top‑edge to midwicket. It was a big breakthrough for Pakistan. Hitherto Vince has done little to convince that he is a Test batsman, and did nothing to alter that view now, although it was a clever set-up by Yasir that led to his lbw dismissal, despite a review. Ballance, too, went cheaply to Yasir, propping forward and also lbw.
All the time, Cook had seemed destined for another Lord’s hundred until Amir, from the Nursery end and bowling from wide of the crease, tempted him to push out away from his body, the ball ricocheting from his inside edge and cannoning into the leg stump. Cook swished his bat in irritation: since his hundred against New Zealand last year, his scores at Lord’s have been 96, 11, 85, 49 not out, and now 81.
Bairstow then threatened to take the attack to Pakistan, hitting five lacerating boundaries until Yasir, as he had with Vince, set him up beautifully, Bairstow first cutting and then, attempting the same stroke to something quicker and flatter, being bowled. Woakes now joined Moeen Ali, the pair batting comfortably enough, adding 39. Yasir had changed ends, though, and sweeping Moeen was given lbw after considerable deliberation by the West Indian umpire Joel Wilson. It was the most marginal of decisions, the two “umpire’s calls” scarcely offering justification.
Pakistan had been able to add 54 in the first hour of the morning, for the loss of the last four wickets, Woakes taking his fifth of the innings, that of Sarfraz, with the softest delivery he bowled, before bamboozling Wahab with a delicious outswing-inswing combination in the same over. Broad then finished things off by bowling a tired-looking Misbah, who had added four runs to his overnight score, and having Amir smartly caught by Root at second slip.
