Sticking to line and length works for Hasan

LONDON: Alastair Cook found his touch after a longish gap, but England managed just 184 runs in their first innings after opting to bat in the Lord’s Test against Pakistan Thursday. With Pakistan then responding with 50-1, the advantage was clearly with the visiting side.

Mohammad Amir bowled an absolute peach to hit the top of Cook’s off stump after the veteran opening batsman had scored 70 to lead the England resistance, but the stars of Pakistan’s bowling were Mohammad Abbas and Hasan Ali, both picking up four wickets on the day.

For Ali, who was such a huge star at the ICC Champions Trophy 2017, it was a happy return to England. Just two Test matches old, Ali made a strong case for a regular berth in the Test XI by first pressing out Joe Root and Dawid Malan and then coming back later to account for Jos Buttler and Mark Wood.

While Root played a slightly injudicious shot, a flashing drive, to nick behind, Malan was done in by a beauty that caught his edge on the way through. Buttler’s Test return lasted just 15 balls as he also went for a big drive and edged to Asad Shafiq at second slip, while Wood, the last man out, went for the pull but only sent the catch as far as Amir at mid-on.

That gave Ali figures of 4-51, his best in the format so far. Abbas ended with 4-23, Mark Stoneman, Ben Stokes, Dom Bess and Stuart Broad his victims.

Poor batting from England or excellent bowling from Pakistan, people asked afterwards, and Ali responded with, “No, England have good batting and (we were) just trying to bowl on the line and length and that’s it. I think they have a good batting line-up.”

This is the 16th time Pakistan are playing a Test match at Lord’s. In the past, they have lost five, drawn six and won four, including the last time out in July 2016 when Misbahul Haq’s century in the first innings and Yasir Shah’s 10 wickets for the match gave Pakistan a 75-run win and a 1-0 lead in the four-match series. It ended 2-2.

“Lord’s is the home of cricket and we did well last time, and InshaAllah we will try to win again in this ground,” said Ali, whose only previous international outing at Lord’s was in a one-day international early on in his career in August 2016, when he returned 1-52.

On the first day of this Test, there was a bit of a development on the side as some of the Pakistani cricketers were spotted wearing smart watches. As such, wearing a smart watch is not prohibited, but it has to be disabled so as to ensure it doesn’t act as a communication device.

No charges of wrongdoing were brought in by anti-corruption officials, but the players have been asked not to wear them, and Ali said, “Earlier I didn’t know but was wearing, but yes, our anti-corruption officer and ICC anti-corruption officer came to us and they told us this is not allowed, so next time nobody will wear it.”