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Seamer Mohammad Abbas claimed four wickets for the tourists while Jordan Cox and Jamie Smith led England’s resistance in the second Test at Lord’s
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Sport — Ali Martin at Lord's
Footage of Brydon Carse kept flashing up on the big screens at Lord’s on Thursday. Not that footage, of course, but rather the headline-grabbing fast bowler enjoying a refreshing can of the fizzy apple juice that is English cricket’s “official drinks break partner”. In fairness, both clips make a decent advert for sticking to the softies.
In Carse’s absence – not that he was likely to play in the second Test – the metaphorical clouds hanging over this England team made way for the real thing. After being stuck in on a nibbling slow surface, a Swiss clock-precise seamer like Pakistan’s Mohammad Abbas was only ever going to be a handful.
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Abbas duly stamped his mark by nipping out four wickets that, with three from the more expressive Mohammad Ali, lifted Pakistan’s mood significantly at 1-0 down . But for Jordan Cox’s 55 and 61 from Jamie Smith, England’s eventual 248 for nine from the 56 overs that were possible would have been considerably worse.
In a new-look England top seven still to fully congeal, these were also important knocks for the pair. Both have reputations as dashers but, with the ball in the ascendancy – unless it was dropping short of the slips – they played the percentage cricket that Joe Root is desperate to instil in his second spell as Test captain.
Cox in particular held the innings together, with 217 minutes of watchfulness – interspersed by punishment of the bad ball – continuing the good impression he has made at No 3. It took a jaw-dropping catch from a substitute fielder to remove him, with Salman Ali Agha – captain last week, dropped the next – as wide-eyed as anyone after the ball stuck in his diving right paw at third slip.
This brought an end to a precious 67-run sixth-wicket stand with Smith and while the wicketkeeper kicked on for a spell, he eventually became one of three men clean bowled before the gloom became too great. Given how one-sided events were at Headingley, the honours felt even in one respect but Pakistan’s in another.
Either way, the series badly needed this kind of contest after the grim affair in the first Test. It remains to be seen if Marylebone Cricket Club can breathe a little easier about the pitch, however, because the nine wickets to fall could easily have swelled further had Ollie Robinson not been denied a late burst.
So far the surface is not quite the minefield witnessed during that rapid-fire Test against New Zealand in June, primarily because the bounce, while low, appears more consistent. Although after rain forced an 80-minute delay to the start of play, it still looked like one that Abbas in particular would enjoy.
It took a little while for Pakistan to find their radar as 20 runs flowed from the first 19 deliveries. But once Abbas had Emilio Gay strangled down leg – not the first time the left-hander has fallen this way in his nascent Test career – he then wiped out Root and Ben Duckett in more familiar fashion.
Trapped lbw for 17 on review, Duckett was Abbas’s 900th wicket in first-class cricket. That only 123 of these had come in the whites of Pakistan is a head-scratcher. Indeed, the 36-year-old has played just 25 Tests out of 59 since starring in their last win at Lord’s eight years ago, despite averaging 22.5. Go figure.
Root, meanwhile, had spent far too much time in the buildup to this Test dealing with the Carse situation , bandwidth he would have preferred to put towards his own game. Not even a life gifted on one helped as, with Mohammad Rizwan up to the stumps, Abbas caught him on the crease for his eighth lbw in 11 innings.
At the other end Ali was struggling with the front line and already combustible due to the earlier catch going down off Root. Things improved for Ali on the stroke of the 2pm lunch, at least, when he bowled Harry Brook for 15 – a ball that deviated lavishly off the seam and whistled past an ambitious straight drive.
England reaching 80 for four at lunch made it Pakistan’s session, clearly, only for Cox and Smith to flip this before tea. One wicket fell for exactly 100 runs in the second session and it was self-inflicted too, Dan Lawrence run out looking to pinch a non-existent single off the spin of Ali Usman and trudging off in disgust.
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Lawrence did not look entirely at ease for his 17, it must be said, not least compared with Cox at the other end. His penchant for the leg-side risks made him easy to tie down. Had Shan Masood not dropped a simple chance at mid-wicket to deny Khurram Shahzad, Lawrence would have fallen for 10.
Indeed, for all that Pakistan upped their game from last week, their fielding – Agha’s wonder-catch off Cox aside – continues to hold them back. The most damaging missed opportunity came when Smith was dropped on 15 by Rizwan. It was a low chance, granted, but bad positioning given what little carry was on offer.
Ali was the bowler to miss out, his exasperation one of the enduring images of the day. He eventually took his colleagues out of the equation, cleaning up Smith and Robinson with balls that nipped in. Abbas repeated the dose for Jofra Archer late on to leave this second Test looking more intriguing than the last one.
In Carse’s absence – not that he was likely to play in the second Test – the metaphorical clouds hanging over this England team made way for the real thing. After being stuck in on a nibbling slow surface, a Swiss clock-precise seamer like Pakistan’s Mohammad Abbas was only ever going to be a handful.
This report is published with credit to The Guardian. Full available text from the wire is above. Read on The Guardian →
Source: The Guardian · Ali Martin at Lord's. Published 27 Aug 2026, 06:20 pm.
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