The Times - UK (2020-08-07)

66 2GM Friday August 7 2020 | the times

SportEngland v Pakistan: First Test

him greater pleasure, the more so given

his failings here and against Anderson,

in particular, last time.

The missed opportunities from the

first day, a catch and a stumping that fell

to Jos Buttler when Shan had made 45,

continued to haunt England, and there

was another Buttler blunder to add to

the mix yesterday when a straightfor-

ward chance off Yasir was grassed after

a horrible snatch at the ball. Buttler

fared confidently when he came to the

crease at the end of the day to join Pope,

and owes his team some runs.

England’s 109 overs in the field were

characterised by extremes, veering

between excellent and ordi-

nary. How players can be so

good one session and so

plain another will

remain an enduring

mystery. Players are

not robots, and no

matter how many

coaches and back-

room staff are there

to pander to a player’s

every need, it is likely

that some variation in

performance will remain.

Let us hope so; it would be

dull and predictable otherwise.

Players have moods, too, and can be

fickle, capricious creatures, none more

so, perhaps, than opening bowlers; and

where Broad and Anderson were so

poor after lunch the day before, they

were outstanding during the opening

hour of the second day. Did a change of

ends do it? Who knows? But having

binned his own end, Anderson

switched around and, in

tandem with Broad, duly

held Pakistan’s

batsmen in a trance

before lunch.

Between them, in

the opening hour

they sent down 12

overs, eight of them

maidens, and picked

up the key wickets of

Babar Azam and Asad

Shafiq. Babar failed to add

to his overnight score,

unable to resist the temptation of

an early drive against Anderson, and

when Shafiq and Mohammad Rizwan

were snared behind the wicket, En-

gland had hopes of bowling Pakistan

England v

Pakistan

Day three, 11am

Emirates Old Trafford

TV: Sky Sports Main Event

Radio: BBC 5 Live Sports Extra

Sunny intervals and

light winds

Bad starters in first Test

England have lost the first Test of

their past five series

2019 v West Indies Bridgetown

2019 v Australia Edgbaston

2019 v New Zealand Mt Maunganui

2019 v South Africa Centurion

2020 v West Indies Ageas Bowl

Things fell apart in the afternoon. The
centre just about held in the evening.
What a day of Test cricket we had as
England, lacking conviction at times
with ball in hand and in the field, wilted
initially in the face of some passionate
intensity from Pakistan’s new-ball
bowlers, losing three wickets to an
opening burst, after Shan Masood’s
authoritative and third consecutive
Test hundred had put his team in a very
commanding position.
The cheers from the Pakistan players
could be heard ringing loud and true on
the dressing-room balcony when Shan
went to his hundred shortly after lunch,
slamming the door on his previous
demons in England.
There was a noticeable uptick in
intensity then, as Pakistan’s young and
old pace attack, cheered on enthusiasti-
cally by their non-playing colleagues
from the hotel balcony, created havoc
with the new ball.
So used to playing in cavernous,
empty stadiums in the United Arab
Emirates, Pakistan’s players created
their own hostile atmosphere at Emir-
ates Old Trafford, and, as the new-ball
bowlers steamed in with constant and
vocal encouragement, England’s bats-
men knew they were in a dogfight.
Under glowering skies and with the
floodlights on, Joe Root and Ollie Pope
held them at bay for an hour of thrilling
cricket — Pope with greater authority,
it must be said — until Root edged Yasir
Shah to the wicketkeeper.
For a session it was a joy to watch
Pakistan’s varied and committed attack.
Shaheen Shah Afridi, the beanpole left-
armer, caused problems with his late
swing, trapping Rory Burns and Root
leg-before, the latter surviving a review
that the former did not. Mohammad
Abbas, with his wily seamers, hunted
the stumps and the pads, pinning Dom
Sibley to the crease leg-before, and
castling Ben Stokes, as the batsman
advanced, with the ball of the match.
The celebrations told you everything
about the value of Stokes’s wicket.
The electric pace of the teenager
Naseem Shah was matched only
by the enthusiasm of his appeal-
ing as he ended each question
to the umpire on his haunches
in the middle of the
pitch. Perhaps the
most alarming
sight for England was
when Yasir’s third ball spun
markedly from the pitch, and
he will surely enjoy this drying
and abrasive surface if he set-
tles better than he was able to in
his seven overs so far. Quick and
agile of feet and mind, Pope played
beautifully to survive to the close.
England’s top-order struggles put
Shan’s magnificent effort
in context. There has
been no more difficult
task in world cricket in recent
years than opening the batting in
England, against England. A com-
bination of helpful pitches, flood-
lights, a Dukes ball and Stuart
Broad and James Anderson on the

prowl has produced

few Test hundreds

from foreign open-

ers. Shan bucked the

trend with a

performance of intelli-

gence and class that has

given his team an excel-

lent chance of winning this

opening Test.

In the past five years, the

only opposition openers to

have managed what Shan

achieved yesterday are KL Ra-

hul, of India, Kraigg Brathwaite,

of West Indies, South Africa’s

Dean Elgar and Australia’s

Chris Rogers. This was Shan’s

third consecutive Test hun-

dred, the others coming in

Rawalpindi and Karachi,

against Bangladesh and Sri

Lanka respectively, so it is

fair to assume that this one gave

Emirates Old Trafford (second day of

five): England, with six first-innings wickets

in hand, are 234 runs behind Pakistan

Pakistan’s hostility leaves

Scoreboard

PAKISTAN First innings R B

Overnight: 139-2

Shan Masood

lbw b Broad

Wide on crease, drifted in

156319

Babar Azam

c Root b Anderson

Full, shaped away, first slip

69 106

Asad Shafiq

c Stokes b Broad

Fifth-stump line, second slip

7 22

†Mohammad Rizwan

c Buttler b Woakes

Tempting length, moved away

9 41

Shadab Khan

c Root b Bess

Advanced, aerial, mid-on

45 76

Yasir Shah

lbw b Archer

Tailed in, hitting leg

5 25

Mohammad Abbas

c Root b Archer

Caught on crease, thick edge

0 1

Shaheen Shah Afridi

not out

9 18

Naseem Shah

c Buttler b Broad

Bounce off a length, gloved

0 8

Extras (b 1, lb 7, nb 2) 10

TOTAL (109.3 overs) 326

Fall of wickets: 1-36, 2-43, 3-139, 4-150,

5-176, 6-281, 7-291, 8-291, 9-317.

Bowling: Anderson 19-6-63-1; Broad 22.3-

9-54-3; Woakes 20-6-43-2; Archer 22-4-

59-3; Bess 20-4-74-1; Root 6-0-25-0.

ENGLAND First innings R B

R J Burns

lbw b Shaheen Afridi

Straightened, middle stump

4 4

D P Sibley

lbw b Mohammad Abbas

Nipped back, falling across

8 8

*J E Root

c Rizwan b Yasir Shah

Too full to cut, feathered

14 58

B A Stokes

b Mohammad Abbas

Jagged away, bail trimmer

0 7

O J D Pope

not out

46 67

†J C Buttler

not out

15 27

Extras (lb 2, nb 3) 5

TOTAL (28 overs; 4 wkts) 92

Fall of wickets: 1-4, 2-12, 3-12, 4-62.

Bowling: Shaheen 9-4-12-1; Abbas 7-0-24-

2; Naseem 5-2-18-0; Yasir 7-0-36-1.

Mike Ather ton

Chief Cricket
Correspondent

England v Pakistan

Umpires R Kettleborough and

R Illingworth (both Eng)

TV umpire M Gough (Eng)

Match referee C Broad (Eng)

12

England’s score at the fall

of the third wicket was their

lowest in the first innings

since they were four for

three against New

Zealand at Napier

in 2008

Pope batted beautifully
to make it to stumps