Pakistan’s Rahat Ali removed England’s top three batsmen as the first Test at Lord’s in London hurtled toward an exciting climax on yesterday’s fourth day.
At lunch, England were 90-3 in their second innings, needing a further 193 runs to reach their victory target of 283.
James Vince was a Test-best 41 not out and the recalled Gary Ballance 15 not out after Rahat had taken three wickets for 36 runs in eight overs.
Photo: Reuters
England captain Alastair Cook launched the chase with a four off the very first ball of the innings when he cut a loose Mohammad Amir delivery to the boundary.
All the pre-match focus had been on Amir, making his return to Test cricket after six years out at the scene of his 2010 spot-fixing crime, but it was fellow left-arm quick Rahat who stunned England.
His back-off-a-length ball had left-hander Cook (8) edging through to wicketkeeper Sarfraz Ahmed.
Photo: Reuters
Cook’s opening partner Alex Hales made a brisk 16 before chasing a wide ball from Rahat outside off-stump, with Mohammad Hafeez holding a good catch at first slip.
Rahat had taken two for eight in 13 balls and England were 32-2.
Joe Root, England’s new No. 3, got off the mark with a back-foot cover drive for four off Rahat and also drove him through the same region, off the front foot, for another boundary, but with a man set back for the shot, the star batsman fell into a hooking trap when he paddled a short ball from Rahat to Yasir Shah at deep square-leg.
Root was out for 9 and England were 47-3.
Vince, too, had gotten off the mark with a cover-driven four off Rahat.
Yet to play a major Test innings, Vince was almost out on 9 when his edged drive off Rahat flew to Younis Khan at second slip.
Younis dropped the low one-handed chance and just failed to cling on to the rebound.
Vince struck three fours in as many balls off Wahab Riaz, the third of Pakistan’s three left-arm quicks, and the Hampshire batsman made it five fours in six balls faced when an edge over point and more authoritative cut off leg-spinner Shah, England’s first-innings tormentor, took him to 39.
That saw Vince, in his fourth match at this level, surpass his previous Test-best of 35 against Sri Lanka at Chester-le-Street in May.
Earlier, Pakistan added just one run to their overnight 214-8 as Stuart Broad had both Shah, out for a Test-best 30, and Amir caught behind.
All-rounder Chris Woakes led England off the field after taking 5-32 for a match haul of 11-112.
England needed to surpass their record fourth innings-winning chase in a Lord’s Test of 282-3 against New Zealand in 2004 if they were to go 1-0 up in the four-match series.
Only the West Indies, with 344-1 in 1984, had ever made more in the fourth innings to win a Test at headquarters.
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