A historic win at Lord’s

In one of the most memorable Tests ever played at the hub of cricket, Pakistan overpowered hosts England by 76 runs to take a 1-0 lead in the four-match series on Sunday. The match that was billed up as the return of Mohammad Amir lived up to the billing as both teams fought tooth and nail over four engrossing days of Test cricket where fans struggled to keep their eyes away from action even for a single ball. Test cricket was alive and kicking at Lord’s as Misbahul Haq led Pakistan, and wrestled the game away on the basis of heroic performance by their prodigiously gifted leg-spinner Yasir Shah. Yasir was the architect of the win with a mesmerising bowling spell in both innings that yielded him a 10-wicket haul for the first time in his Test career. But it wasn’t Yasir alone; this was a special team effort with all eleven players chipping in with small or big contributions throughout the Test.

Pakistan’s win was their fourth at Lord’s and first in 20 years. Misbah now joins an illustrious club of Pakistan captains to have led the team to win at the historic venue; the list includes Imran Khan, Javed Miandad and Wasim Akram besides Misbah.

With their win, Pakistan have put the marker down on the four-match series. England who were plagued by the absence of star bowler James Anderson have a few more headaches to fix before the two teams meet for the second Test at Manchester’s Old Trafford next Friday. Anderson is expected to return for the match but England have issues with their batting line-up that was twice baffled by Yasir and Pakistan’s trio of left-armers at Lord’s. If Misbah’s eleven can retain their intensity and commitment at Old Trafford, Pakistan can be in the driving seat again — as the team eyes a series win in England for the first time since 1996. Psychologically, the Asians are all over England with victories in six out of the seven Tests played between the two teams — ironically, all these games have been played since the spot-fixing scandal shook Pakistan cricket to the core in the last Lord’s Test played by the tourists in 2010.

Published in The Express Tribune, July 19^th, 2016.

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