This was Pakistan’s fourth Test win at Lord’s in 16 Tests.
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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. Yasir Shah was the wrecker-in-chief, picking up six wickets with his wrist spin.
“Certainly when you’ve lost a game of cricket for the first 20 minutes or so it’s not pleasant”.
“We have a top spinner and the bowlers can really put pressure on the opposition”.
That set England the 283 victory target, with Stuart Broad removing Yasir for 30 and Mohammad Amir to end on three for 38.
As for Amir, a teenager in 2010 but now aged 24, Misbah said: “Everybody wants Mohammad Amir to play, especially the crowd. It’s a good week in terms of some of the guys growing up and becoming a match-hardened Test cricketers”.
England paid dearly for some poor top-order batting in both innings and skipper Alastair Cook said: “There was a bit of naive batting, kind of basic errors”. Its a tough pill to take.
England was holding firm at 195 for 6 thanks to a determined stand of 56 between Jonny Bairstow (48) and Chris Woakes (23).
His mistake was unexpected, getting much too far across his stumps to a Yasir leg-break as he was bowled round his legs from round the wicket for 43.
The run-rate slowed as Bairstow and Woakes dug in, knowing they had just the tail behind them at a sun-drenched Lord’s.
Not for the first time this summer, he departed full of self-reproach – third out, after Alex Hales had thrown the bat at a little width only to edge high and fast to slip, where Mohammad Hafeez took a very good catch. Joe Root, England’s new number three, struck two superb cover-driven fours off Rahat – one of the back foot and the other the front.
Even though nerves tightened his muscles somewhat, and he conceded four runs an over early on, he still created chances and asked enough questions to remind everyone why he was the youngest-ever bowler to capture 50 Test wickets.
Amir then returned to bowl Stuart Broad with full-length swing – and even Woakes, in a match he will nonetheless remember fondly for his brilliant individual performance, could prevent the inevitable as the last four wickets fell for 12 runs.
The hosts were bowled out for 272 in reply to Pakistan’s 339 in the first innings, after the leg-spinner took six for 72, the second best figures by a Pakistani bowler at Lord’s, and the best innings bowling by a visiting spinner against England on this ground since Sid Pegler’s seven for 65 for South Africa back in 1912.
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Moeen Ali hardly helped England’s cause, dismissed for two when he charged at a Yasir delivery and was bowled to leave England on 139 for six.
