Pakistan suffered another batting failure in the ongoing Test series as England secured the series on the expected lines with a massive 194-run win at Lord’s. England set Pakistan a tough target of 388 on the fourth morning and promptly hit three overs very early in the run chase. Although Pakistan briefly recovered, the resistance was short-lived as they were bowled out for 194.
It did not take Pakistan long to end the English innings on the fourth morning. Dan Lawrence’s half-century started off brilliantly with a boundary through point and Ollie Robinson pulled Mohammed Ali for his first boundary. But a powerful shot from Mohamed Abbas struck the top of Lawrence’s torso soon after to give the visitors a vital early lead. Abbas then had one to go away after throwing the ball to take Robinson’s outside edge, giving him a well-deserved five points. Josh Tonge added a few boundaries but the run out brought about a quick end to the innings as England failed to reduce their lead beyond the 400-run mark.
However, there were enough signs early in the fifth over of the Pakistan innings that this goal would be more than enough. Robinson had first trapped Azaan Owais before, coming out with a cutting pass to cut through Abdullah Shafiq’s defense and rattle the stump, disposing of him for a duck in the same spot. Things went from bad to worse real quick when Jofra Archer struck two overs later to get the big fish. A clumsy half-clearance from Babar to a short delivery from Archer led to chaos that eventually led to Jordan Cox completing a simple catch at the slip cordon.
Saud Shakeel and Shan Masood then had a trial period of play before lunch. They were beaten on a few occasions, managed to get over some boundaries, and most importantly, survived until the session broke. In the process, England also ended up losing two reviews in that period as they tried to wrap things up quickly. However, Shaquille produced a positive performance after the break and kept England at bay for a fair amount of time alongside Mesut. Shakil brought up his fifty off just 54 balls and soon after, there was a rain break which kept the players inside for about 40 minutes.
After the resumption, it was Robinson who made the breakthrough once again when he ended Mesut’s stubborn resistance. Mohammad Rizwan was the next to depart as Robinson was trapped lbw while trying to bat. With half the team back in the pavilion and Imamul Haq not ready to bat, the contest was pretty much over at this stage. Ali Usman snared 44 deliveries before pulling one off Archer to the stumps, prompting a response at the other end from Shakeel who smashed two sixes at the over of the tongue in his attempt to reach a century. Painfully, this approach led to his downfall when he found the bowler deep three tonnes under his weight as he tongue-swept his tail to put Pakistan out of their misery.
Summary scores: England 290 (Jimmy Smith 61; Mohammad Abbas 4-73) and 208 (Dan Lawrence 54; Mohammad Abbas 5-57) beat Pakistan 110 (Azaan Owais 46; Oli Robinson 4-11) and 194 (Saud Shakeel 97; Oli Robinson 4-24) by 194 runs.
