Summary Yasir Shah grabbed 10 wickets in the first Test against England.
Team Misbah managed to take a 1-0 lead with a spirited effort from the bowlers including Yasir Shah who took 10 wickets in the match with a total tally of 86 wickets in tests.
The morning started with Pakistan unable to add many runs to their total setting England a target of 283 as Broad managed to get Yasir and Amir both. Rahat Ali bowled a fine opening spell, when he got the ball to shape across Cook and Hales. He bowled probing lengths which induced edges from both their openers. Root who was looking to dominate the Pakistani bowlers, got a top edge and holed it out to Yasir Shah at deep square leg. With root and cook back in the pavilion, Pakistan fancied their chances.
Although Pakistan got wickets early on, they did struggle initially by not bowling the right lines. James Vince who scored fairly quickly, hit back to back fours against Wahab Riaz made his best test score but was soon dismissed after lunch when the ball started to reverse off the ball of Wahab. Ballance also contributed by regularly rotating the strike but was undone by a delivery that spun a little and hit the leg stump.
Moeen Ali who spoke in the press conference day before how important it was to play Yasir Shah well, went down the wicket only to miss a delivery between bat and pad crashing into the stumps. Woakes who had a brilliant test match offered great support to Bairstow and together they played 54 overs between each other. That was the time post lunch where it seemed that the game was slipping away with Bairstow playing Yasir well. Wahab Riaz bowled a fine spell of reverse swing beating the bat several times but unable to get the edge of Johnny Bairstow.
Pakistan bowled tight lines but England was putting up a fight until Bairstow missed a long hop from Yasir that crashed into the stumps much to his dismay. What could have been a heroic innings was one now that would not be remembered.
Mohammad Amir was given the ball to clean up the tail, he bowled full and quick and used the reverse swing to perfection. It was a fabulous test match well supported by the crowd who got to witness the Pakistani celebration – the ten press ups that brought the crowd and Pakistani fans in particular tremendous joy.
Reported by Zainab Abbas
