Pakistan have stormed to a stunning upset victory inside four days in the first Test of their two-game series against England at Lord’s.
The hosts’ late day-three resurgence, led by a 126-run seventh-wicket stand between Jos Buttler and debutant Dom Bess, was abruptly halted in its tracks on Sunday as Pakistan claimed a memorable victory in London.
It’s their second win in as many Test visits to Lord’s, having famously completed push-ups in front of the Member’s pavilion when they defeated England there two years ago.
Pakistan needed just 25 balls to claim the remaining four England wickets, as Mohammad Abbas (4-41) removed Buttler with the eighth ball of the morning as tail-enders Mark Wood and Stuart Broad followed close behind.
Left-armer Mohammad Amir (4-36) finished the innings in emphatic fashion when he clean-bowled Bess, while Abbas finished with eight wickets for the match.
Chasing a modest 64 to win, Pakistan lost the reliable Azhar Ali (4) early as Jimmy Anderson skittled the opener.
But Haris Sohail (29 not out) and Imam-ul-Haq (18 not out) knocked off the runs with relative ease to hand Pakistan a nine-wicket win and set the series ledger at 1-0 heading to Leeds.
DAY THREE REPORT:
Jos Buttler and Dominic Bess fought a determined rearguard action as England avoided an innings defeat by Pakistan in the first Test at Lord’s on Saturday.
When the pair came together, before tea on the third day, England were 6-110 in their second innings – still needing a further 69 runs to make Pakistan bat again.
But come stumps, England were 6-235 after an unbroken century stand by their seventh-wicket duo.
England were a mere 56 runs ahead with four wickets standing and the new ball on the horizon, but at least they were still in the game.
Buttler was 66 not out and Bess 55 not out after the 20-year-old marked his Test debut with a fine fifty.
The pair’s 125-run stand was also a vindication for England’s new national selector, Ed Smith, who had recalled Buttler as a specialist number seven and picked Somerset off-spinner Bess.
But the way the pair played on a sunny day in the best batting conditions of the match, was also an indictment of some of their top-order colleagues involved in England’s latest collapse.
“We wanted to scrap hard and try and get ourselves back in the game,” Buttler told Sky Sports.
“With Dom Bess, it was like Joe Root walked back out, with his back foot punches and cover drives. He’s got a great character and he really showed that,” added Buttler, who started his career at Somerset before moving to Lancashire.
England are historically difficult to beat in home Tests starting in May – they’ve lost just three out of 33.
Yet they were facing the prospect of going 1-0 down in this two-match series midway though the afternoon after Mohammad Amir took two wickets in three balls to dismiss Dawid Malan and Jonny Bairstow.
England were 179 runs behind on first innings after Pakistan were bowled out for 363 early on Saturday, with Babar Azam unable to add to his 68 after retiring hurt Friday with a broken forearm while facing Ben Stokes.
The hosts soon found themselves in further trouble as Alastair Cook was dismissed for just one.
The left-handed opener, making a record-equalling 153rd consecutive Test appearance, had top-scored with 70 in England’s meagre first-innings 184.
But Saturday saw England’s all-time leading Test run-scorer lbw to Mohammad Abbas.
The afternoon session saw Amir strike twice to initiate a collapse that saw England lose four wickets for 19 runs.
It was the exit of Malan, who saw a piece of his helmet fly off after turning away from a Hasan Ali bouncer, that sparked the slump.
Malan edged a good-length Amir delivery, with diving wicket-keeper Sarfraz Ahmed, the Pakistan captain, holding an excellent low one-handed catch that would not have carried to first slip.
Two balls later, Bairstow fell for a duck when left-arm quick Amir produced a superb delivery that cut back to clip the top of off stump.
Amir, whose career almost came to a complete end at Lord’s back in 2010 after he received a jail sentence and five-year ban from cricket for his involvement in a spot-fixing scandal during a corresponding Test against England, had taken two wickets for no runs in three balls.
England were now 4-91 and badly needed a batsman to support captain Joe Root, who had made a 93-ball fifty.
But instead Stokes (nine) carelessly turned Shadab off his pads to midwicket.
A frustration of the talented Root’s career has been an inability to turn Test fifties into hundreds and Saturday was a case in point.
This was his 40th half-century at this level but there was no 14th Test hundred as Root fell lbw to Abbas for 68.
Buttler and Bess, however, kept Pakistan at bay with Bess – whose first-class debut, against Pakistan, was just two years ago – driving Hasan Ali for four to give England the lead.
Bess ended proceedings in style by driving Amir for four off the last ball of the day.
England: Alastair Cook, Mark Stoneman, Joe Root (capt), Dawid Malan, Jonny Bairstow, Ben Stokes, Jos Buttler, Mark Wood, Dom Bess, Stuart Broad, James Anderson
Pakistan: Azhar Ali, Imam-ul-Haq, Haris Sohail, Asad Shafiq, Babar Azam, Sarfraz Ahmed (capt), Shadab Khan, Faheem Ashraf, Mohammad Amir, Hasan Ali, Mohammad Abbas
