England snatch a victory from jaws of defeat

Tags: Pakistan tour of England, 2020, Pakistan, England, England vs Pakistan, 1st Test at Lord's, Aug 05- 09, 2020

Published on: Aug 10, 2020

At 117-5, England were staring at a certain defeat. It would have been their second at home this summer, and a demoralizing one at that because the opposition had dominated for the most part of the test. But Woakes and Buttler scripted a remarkable turnaround to help their nation register a famous win. This victory will be remembered for a long time because, of late, chasing hasn’t been easy in test match cricket, especially when the target is in excess of 200. A strong team like India have faltered time and time again chasing targets around 200 in the fourth innings for the past 2-3 years, although mostly overseas. So, when Pakistan had set a target of 277 runs, Azhar Ali would have been pretty confident of defending it.

After getting rid of Burns early, Sibely and Root consolidated for a while and made decent contributions. But when Yasir Shah broke their stand, it opened the gates for Pakistan to come back in the match. They picked up 4 wickets while giving only 31 runs to leave England reeling at 117-5. It was then only that Woakes and Buttler started to counterattack with a flurry of boundaries. They reverse swept Yasir Shah to the boundary frequently to counter his tricks. With victory in sight, the ace leg spinner picked up 2 more scalps to delay England’s win by a bit, but it was too late.

Earlier in the match, Pakistan had put up a competitive 326 on the back of Shan Masood’s marathon knock of 156 and useful contributions from Babar Azam and Shadab Khan. In reply, England were left tottering at 12-3 by some impressive fast bowling from Abbas. Yasir picked up four as England could manage only 219, with Ollie Pope making a stylish score of 62. With a healthy lead of 107, Pakistan would have hoped to give a target in excess of 350, but England had other ideas. Broad and Woakes ran through their top order and with some late resistance from Yasir early on Day 4, Pakistan managed to put up a score of 169.

Although Yasir picked up eight wickets in the match, the man of the match award went to Chris Woakes for his four wickets in the game, but more importantly, a match winning knock of 84 not out.

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