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Joe Root gathers his troops in a huddle. What’s he saying, I wonder. “Don’t hack me off, lads”?
As the England bowlers limber up in front of the pavilion, Pakistan have an injury to deal with. Imam-ul-Haq is having treatment for a calf strain, so Shan Masood will move up to open (which he’s well used to). Here’s hoping Imam is able to play some part down the order.
So, on what Stuart Broad saw as a 250 pitch, England have 290. After subsiding to 77-4, they could easily have been 180 all out, but Jordan Cox made a gritty 55, Jamie Smith returned to form with a fluent 61, Gus Atkinson made a Bazballish 45 and Josh Tongue, not content with his first 20 for England, motored on to the dizzy heights of 30. The upshot is that Pakistan, who need a first-innings lead, will have to work hard to avoid a deficit.
WICKET! Atkinson c Mohammad Ali b Ali Usman 45 (England 290 all out)
Here is plan B and it works right away. Ali Usman comes on with his flighted left-arm spin and Atkinson, after helping himself to a lofted drive for four, falls to a top edge.
66th over: England 285-9 (Atkinson 41, Tongue 29) As Abbas continues, Tongue goes back to his trusty outside edge and reaches another milestone: 100 runs in Tests. He’s now so confident that he hits a four in front of the wicket – a cover drive, not quite classical but definitely middled.
For Pakistan, plan A hasn’t worked (though it easily could have, with those early edges). Does Babar Azam have a plan B?
Josh Tongue makes his first 20!
65th over: England 278-9 (Atkinson 40, Tongue 23) Tongue, facing Mohammad Ali, has a near-miss as the nip-backer almost takes out his stumps, but the next ball is a freebie on his pads and he clips it for a single. That takes him to 20 for the first time in his three years as a Test cricketer. He celebrates not with a wave of the bat, but with a chip for three to midwicket. His average has now soared to 6.60.
64th over: England 272-9 (Atkinson 39, Tongue 19) Abbas, bowling to Atkinson, tries a bouncer too, followed by a yorker. Atkinson misses with a pull but manages to jab down on the next ball as it homes in on his big toe. Then he hits a straight thump, straight at Abbas, who saves three runs by taking a blow on the thigh. Tongue takes a single to equal his Test best – also made at Lord’s, on his debut against Australia in 2023.
63rd over: England 270-9 (Atkinson 38, Tongue 18) Josh Tongue, facing Mohammad Ali, is smiling again – and then playing a nice leg glance for four. When Ali resorts to a bouncer, he has no trouble swaying out of the way. He makes a great No 11.
The cameras find Gary Lineker in one of the boxes. He’s wearing a suit and tie, and he too has a smile on his face.
62nd over: England 266-9 (Atkinson 38, Tongue 14) Scrap that: Atkinson takes a leg-bye off the second ball of this over. As Tongue prepares to face Abbas, the keeper, Mohammad Rizwan, calls for a helmet and goes up to the stumps – so Josh Tongue is now being treated like Joe Root. The ploy could backfire by making Tongue’s nicks harder for the slips to pick up. And it doesn’t seem to bother Tongue, who plays an uppish flick for a single to steal the strike.
61st over: England 264-9 (Atkinson 38, Tongue 13) Ali bowls to Atkinson, who promptly steps away to leg, dreaming of a six over backward point, but connects only with thin air. The over ends in a flurry of singles – one to each batter and then a tight one to Atkinson, who may have decided that he needs to protect Tongue from Abbas.
60th over: England 261-9 (Atkinson 36, Tongue 12) Now Tongue has a whole over to face, and it’s from Abbas. Five-for time, surely? Not yet, as Tongue plays straight and even spots a slower ball. An even slower ball, with a wobble seam, which leaves a smile on both of their faces. When he reverts to normal speed, Abbas does find the edge, but Tongue gets away with it again and picks up two. This is now his second-highest Test score.
59th over: England 259-9 (Atkinson 36, Tongue 10) Atkinson, facing Mohammad Ali, sees a short ball, goes for the pull and again takes the single off the first ball. Tongue plays and misses – and, as Mike Atherton notes, looks quite pleased about it, seeing that the pitch is still offering movement. A single off a thick inside edge takes him into double figures for the third time in his 14 Tests. He should really raise his bat.
Meanwhile there’s an email that gets off to a punchy start. “There are times I wouldn’t trust the ECB to sit the right way round on a lavatory,” says Martin Sinclair, “but credit where it is due, they did well in appointing Sarah Taylor. They didn’t make a big deal of it, just brought a woman into what was previously an exclusively male environment, and let her get on with the job. While probably not as significant as women being granted the vote, in its own way, it definitely represents quiet progress.” Yes – and not before time, as there have been male coaches in the women’s game for ages.
58th over: England 257-9 (Atkinson 35, Tongue 9) Gus Atkinson, who loves playing at Lord’s, would be entitled to turn down a single, but he takes one off Abbas’s first ball. Tongue responds to this show of faith with an extravagant waft that would be curtains if Babar Azam had posted a third slip. Abbas then raps Tongue on the pad, goes up for LBW and even persuades Babar to review, but it’s going down.
57th over: England 252-9 (Atkinson 34, Tongue 5) Josh Tongue, who has a Test batting average of 5, makes sure he’ll maintain it by steering Mohammad Ali wide of the slips and down the slope to the Tavern boundary. Otherwise it’s all dots and Ali has done the right thing by giving Mohammad Abbas the chance to get on the honours board.
The players are out there and Mohammad Ali is going to bowl from the Nursery End. I hope he’s got the memo….
On Sky, Ian Ward has just done a quick interview with England’s assistant coach, Sarah Taylor. Asked about being the first woman among the England coaches, she reveals a nice detail. “The players just call me Coach,” she says, “which is how it should be.”
As we had a shortened day yesterday, this is going to be a longer one. Play still starts at 11, but the intervals are a bit later than usual – lunch at 1.15pm and tea at 4.10 – and the close may not be until 7pm. In theory, there will be 98 overs in the day; in practice, this is England and they haven’t picked a specialist spinner, so their over rate may well be abysmal as usual.
Preamble
Morning everyone and welcome to something that looks suspiciously like a proper contest. After falling flat in Leeds, Pakistan came to Lord’s and stood tall. They won the toss and bowled well from both ends as Mohammad Ali enrolled in the Mohammad Abbas school of exacting accuracy. The fielding was patchy but good enough to restrict England to 248-9 on a surface that Stuart Broad had described as “probably a 250 pitch”.
Today, Pakistan have two jobs. They need to take the last wicket: in an ideal world, Ali will tactfully leave that to Abbas, so he can take his rightful place on the honours board after collecting two four-wicket hauls here in 2018. And then the batters, led by Babar Azam, have to knuckle down and make their way to a first-innings lead of about 100.
They don’t have the wind in their sails after Headingley, but they should have the weather on their side. Apart from a shower or two in mid-afternoon, the forecast is mostly sunshine. If you’re there, or even if you’re not, do say hello.
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