England v
Pakistan: 2nd, Day 1
As You Were!
June 1st 2018
If Joe Root’s fairy godmother had appeared and offered him three wishes,
you can guarantee that “a decent opening partnership” and “bowlers with
accurate length and line” would have been the first two out of his mouth. “Knocking
over the opposition cheaply” would have followed them. It was his lucky day.
The fairy godmother came up trumps. England looked like the side that, over
recently years, has been hard to beat at home.
The final England XI was as difficult to call as any for a long time. In
the end, to the already known sacrifice of Stoneman was added Mark Wood – not a
good day to be called “Mark” – and Ben Stokes was unable even to bat. This
meant that Woakes came in for Stokes and Curran for Wood, to add some variety to
the attack.
There were calls for Stuart Broad to be dropped after a largely anaemic
winter – if you pass over his fine performances in New Zealand – and a poor 1st
Test. He though, after rumours that he might be dropped, was well-nigh
unplayable for a good fraction of the day, inducing a play and a miss from an
incredible 30% of deliveries. He removed both openers with 17 on the board and
took Usman Salahuddin to leave Pakistan 78-6. When Jimmy Anderson added Faheem Ashraf
to his earlier dismissal of Sarfraz Ahmed, Pakistan were 79-7 and looking set
for a total under 100. Shadhab Khan scored a fine 50, well-supported by the
tail, to avoid that indignity, before becoming Sam Curran’s first Test wicket.
While 174ao in a session and a half was no way to start a Test, it was
not the disaster for Pakistan that it could have been. It also showed how the
situation has reversed since Lord’s: England were energetic, the bowling
accurate and they caught (almost) everything.
Pakistan, in contrast, looked helpless with the bat and unthreatening
with the ball. England got their first fifty opening partnership for seven
Tests. Jennings and Cook were both solid and batted well together, so it was a
surprise when Jennings edged behind. There was also a fifty partnership for the
second wicket, with Cook falling shortly before the Close, just short of his
own fifty. Dom Bess’s reward for his batting at Lord’s was to be promoted to
nightwatchman and he duly took 9 of the 13 balls remaining in the day. If Root
and Bess can bed-in in the morning, it will set up the position for Bairstow
and Buttler to push on, hopefully to a score near 400. The bad news is that the
weather forecast is poor, something that Pakistan, for once, will not be to
unhappy about.
One ball from Hasan Ali in the final over pitched on a good length and
kept alarmingly low: if that is happening on the first day, the fifth day may
not be fun for the batsmen.
3-43 for Anderson. 3-38 for the superb Broad. 3-55 for Woakes,
expensive, but threatening. And 1-33 for Curran, who shaped-up well, even if at
the gentlest pace of the England quartet. What was interesting was that, with
the exception of Mohammed Abbas, who was high-70s, all the seam bowlers on both
sides were averaging low 80s, although the quickest balls of the day were
bowled by Hassan Ali and Mohammad Amir.
