England v Pakistan: 2nd, Day 1 - As You Were!

 

England v Pakistan: 2^nd, Day 1

As You Were!

June 1^st 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 1^st 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.