The 25-year-old, who shared a stand of 185 with his captain, Alastair Cook, said: “I have felt in good touch all summer – I found some stupid ways to get out – but I worked hard to graft and maybe not score at the rate I have done recently over the past few years”. England lost a very good Test match because they played the leg-spinner badly. It’s really important that we keep building.
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Shah had played a pivotal role in Pakistan’s 75-run victory in the first test by claiming a 10-wicket match haul and is also the quickest test bowler to reach 86 wickets in 13 test matches.
Cook (105) cashed in first – after winning the toss in sunny conditions, on a pitch of even pace and bounce – and Root (141no) followed him to three-figures.
Cook had an early moment of fortune, edging the final ball of Amir’s first over at catchable height through a vacant fourth slip to double his score.
It was a week later than it should have been but England finally turned up for this series on Friday with the captain and the man destined to replace him righting the wrongs of Lord’s all by themselves. Yet I’m not seriously suggesting there really is any comparison between Cook or Bradman other than both can probably be regarded as their country’s most distinguished batsmen. “I was trying to take as much risk out of my batting as possible”.
“As for Bradman, I can’t compare it. He got his 29 hundreds in a lot less time than me”.
Inzamam, who played 120 Tests, said Pakistan will have to play with passion throughout the series and can’t afford to relax. Cricket has been the talking point – whether it’s the performances of Chris Woakes or Yasir Shah [at Lord’s]. “We didn’t play the greatest game of cricket at Lord’s”, Alastair divulged.
We must remember that Pakistan’s is a very unusual attack – how often do you see three left-arm seamers and a leg-spinner in a side? – and Root adopted the unusual tactic of taking an off-stump guard to combat them. A big morning session from England could take the match away from Pakistan and maintain an unbeaten run at Old Trafford that goes as far back as 2001. It was his 10th Test ton in 44 matches. It was a bit of a concern – but after the scan I think he’s OK. “He forgot the basics, it was coming out too flat, too fast and with not enough spin on the ball”, he said. This was Root’s first hundred batting at No. 3 for England. Yasir bowled 18 overs unchanged – split by the lunch interval – and by the time he was given a break, England had taken him for 69 runs and gone some way towards ensuring no immediate hangover from their poor display against at Lord’s.
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Mohammad Amir had been given a respectful welcome from the Lord’s crowd on his return to the scene of his spot-fixing crime, but now he was greeted with cries of ‘no ball!’ from sections of the Old Trafford crowd after every ball of his opening over.
