But, as with most of the England upper order in the first innings, they failed to establish themselves, and Pakistan took wickets and regained the upper hand.
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His return to the England dressing room will have been greeted with silence.
Yasir Shah produced a magical five-wicket haul to put Pakistan in a commanding position on day 2 of the first Test against England on Friday.
The 25-year-old smashed nine fours to settle a nervy England after the hosts lost three vital wickets in their bid for a record final-innings chase of 283 for victory at Lord’s.
In a match billed for months as the Test return of Amir after his five-year ban for spot-fixing here, and all that might entail in terms of crowd and opposition reaction, it has been intrigue of the right kind which has taken over from the outset.
“It’s a good message and one thing that we learn from there, those army people, they are not getting big salaries, but for this flag, for the Pakistani nation, they want to sacrifice their life”. I hope he will prove to everyone that he can be a really good man now, a good human being. We were always slightly behind.
The run-rate slowed as Bairstow and Woakes dug in, knowing they had just the tail behind them at a sun-drenched Lord’s.
And Vince’s timely intervention stopped the early rot, after Alastair Cook, Alex Hales and Joe Root had all departed to leave England 47 for three at one stage.
James Vince (42) got a lucky escape on 9 before lunch when Younis Khan couldn’t grasp a hard low catch on his second attempt in the slips off Ali before Younis caught him – again on the second attempt – soon after lunch off Wahab Riaz.
Moeen Ali then gave himself only three sighters before he went on the charge at Yasir, missed and was bowled by another leg-break.
Yasir took 10 wickets in the match. We lost to Australia here far more heavily and we certainly bounced back very well in the next few games.
“We can bounce back”.
“I was disappointed with the first innings where we were about 100 runs light”.
Earlier, Pakistan added just one run to their overnight 214 for eight as Stuart Broad had both Shah, out for a Test-best 30 and Amir caught behind.
And when Bairstow was bowled by Yasirm England were just 88 adrift.
Stuart Broad, Steve Finn and Jake Ball surely can not be entrusted with too much of the remaining chase which puts much responsibility on the shoulders of the pair at the crease.
England will have to play him much better second time round if they are to pull off their highest chase on this ground to avoid going 1-0 down with three to play.
Left-arm fast bowler Amir ended the match when took the winning wicket and bowled out England’s last man, Jake Ball.
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On a gripping fourth day, Pakistan surged to victory with four wickets in 31 balls after Jonny Bairstow and Chris Woakes had threatened to work their way towards the target of 283.
