Key events
Ali Martin has filed his match report, no messing about, so that’s my cue to go and get some fresh air. Thanks for your company, correspondence and views on the reviews. It’s been the thumping victory England fans wanted, and the one Pakistan fans feared. The Root-Trescothick regime, makeshift as it is, has got off to an excellent start.
The Sky pundits are discussing the result. Have we learnt anything about England, asks Ian Ward. “Not really,” says Stuart Broad. “Joe Root won an important toss. I know Pakistan said they would have batted but I sometimes think that’s a bit of a mind game… You bowl first, you win the game here for the past six or seven years… ‘[But] you can only beat what’s in front of you and England have done that quite comprehensively. If you win a Test by an innings and 100 runs, against anyone, it’s a strong performance. They caught really well… The only person who you look at and think ‘it hasn’t gone his way at all’ is Jamie Smith.”
“The biggest thing is Joe Root,” says Nasser Hussain. “He had a really good three days. The way he batted, the way he captained in the field. It was never ‘look at me’, it was never ‘I’m being Ben Stokes,’ it was just Joe being Joe with a smile on his face. He was much better here than he was at the Oval.”
“For now,” Root also said, “it’s time for us to enjoy this brilliant performance.” And there’s no curfew to hold them back!
And here’s Joe Root, the winning captain – we haven’t been able to say that for a while. As is his wont, he deflects the praise. Very skilful,” he says, of the bowling. “I thought the bowlers found the right areas very early on in the Test and once we got ahead, we showed great maturity actually… It’s very exciting to see a complete performance.”
When Mark Butcher asks about the batting, Root praises Jordan Cox’s calmness at No 3 and adds, “Brooky showed why he’s the best player in the world.”
And his own batting? “I love batting for England and that’s never really gonna waver.” But getting out when he did “wasn’t great example-setting from me”. As always, he radiates decency. And his captaincy here was much sharper than it was back in the day, or even at the Oval in June.
Here’s Salman Ali Agha, Pakistan’s stand-in captain, and he doesn’t gild the lily. “England have outplayed us,” he says. “We have made many mistakes… we need to come back stronger… Ali Usman was outstanding… We need to go to London and sit down [and talk about it], and hopefully Babar comes back.”
The player-of-the-match trophy could easily be shared by Ollie Robinson and Josh Tongue, and cut in half. But there’s no need for the saw after all, as it goes to Robinson. “I didn’t feel in great rhythm [at first],” he says, ”but it was nipping both ways and I knew as long as I could control my length and my line, I was in the game…”
Joe Root will dominate the headlines, and he deserves to after taking the reins again. But Mark Wood is making a good point: that credit should also go to the backroom staff, led by Marcus Trescothick, who held a meeting with the seamers this morning. Wood feels the message will have been to concentrate on wobble-seam, which worked a treat.
The first email to arrive since the end of the game is an interesting one. “Excellent umpiring throughout,” says Andrew Goudie. “England poor with reviews.”
True, but perhaps we can agree that they got away with it?
Fun fact: Josh Tongue took his eight wickets here off only 15 overs. That’s a wicket every 11 balls. In his previous Test, the grievous loss to New Zealand at Trent Bridge, he bowled 35 overs and took none for 150. If he’d bowled as well in that series as he did here, Ben Stokes might still be the England captain.
The margin of victory is an innings and 103 runs. Now that’s what you call resounding.
To win a Test, you (nearly always) have to take 20 wickets. Joe Root’s new-look England managed it in 85 overs, 84 of them bowled by their four seamers, who took all 20. Eight each to Ollie Robinson and Josh Tongue, three to Jofra Archer and one to Gus Atkinson.
ENGLAND WIN BY AN INNINGS!
Mohammad Abbas c Lawrence b Archer 6 (Pakistan 135 all out) Abbas slices to backward point, and Joe Root’s triumph is complete!
37th over: Pakistan 131-9 (Abbas 2, Mohammad Ali 0) So, just the rabbits left now, and nobody in the hutch.
“Where does this sit in the ‘one team poor, the other good’ scale, Tim?” asks Guy Hornsby. “It’s great to see this England attack making hay, and wickets and pressure shared between the whole group, but it’s hard to assess things when Pakistan look so feeble.” True, and the point about sharing also applies to the runs.
“As much as I want us to win this series, seeing Pakistan so rickety always gives me a tinge of sadness. They’re better than this. But Tongue, Robinson, Atkinson and Archer will not care one jot. England do seem to have a real depth, and that’s not been the case for some time.”
Well … one shocker doesn’t make a summer. Look at New Zealand, who lost the first Test by a distance and still won the series. But yes, Pakistan are in a bad way, and it’s not hard to picture them being whitewashed.
WICKET! Mohammad Rizwan b Atkinson 41 (Pakistan 131-9)
Splattered! Rizwan goes for the big heave, misses, and gives Gus Atkinson the wicket he deserves.
36th over: Pakistan 129-8 (Rizwan 39, Abbas 2) Rizwan takes a single off the first ball of Robinson’s over, just as he did, fatally, when batting with Khurram. This time the rabbit at the other end survives, because Abbas isn’t quite good enough to get a nick.
35th over: Pakistan 128-8 (Rizwan 38, Abbas 2) After seeing him go for 26 off two overs, Joe Root takes Josh Tongue off in disgust. He brings back Atkinson, who manages to keep Rizwan relatively quiet, but still has no wicket in the match.
34th over: Pakistan 125-8 (Rizwan 35, Abbas 2) Robinson, bowling to Abbas, restores order with a maiden. Abbas, as he heads for a mid-pitch chat with Rizwan, looks chuffed to have survived it.
“There are some good bowling figures all over the country this week,” says Rob Knap, “but I think Ben Allison’s for Worcs at Gloucs are the most pleasing (if you’re into this kind of thing): 17.5-9-19-5. A week or so after the six-hitting competition ended, it’s really lovely to see.”
A nice point. But to be fair, the six-hitting competition involved plenty of good bowling. And some of it came from three of England’s bowlers here – Josh Tongue, Jofra Archer and Gus Atkinson, who has bowled better than his figures might suggest.
33rd over: Pakistan 125-8 (Rizwan 35, Abbas 2) Tongue puts a foot wrong in a small way, letting Abbas take a single off the first ball. Rizwan tucks in – a crisp cover drive for two, a rasping pull for four. That takes him to the top score in the innings, for what it’s worth: he celebrates this dubious milestone with a straight drive for four more. Tongue bites back with a fast length ball that hits Rizwan on the inner thigh. Ouch! But Rizwan has put a dent in Tongue’s figures, which have suddenly gone from 5-0-17-3 to 7-0-43-3.
32nd over: Pakistan 114-8 (Rizwan 25, Abbas 1) So Ollie Robinson and Josh Tongue took five wickets apiece in the first innings, and now they’ve got three each in the second. Test cricket, so hard so often, can sometimes be strangely easy.
Thanks Rob and afternoon everyone. A very good afternoon for England … not so good for Pakistan, or anyone who’s got a ticket for tomorrow.
Drinks Time for me to hand over to the great Tim de Lisle – bye!
WICKET! Pakistan 111-8 (Khurram c Cox b Robinson 8)
Rizwan exposes Khurram again, this time after only one ball of Robinson’s over. I just don’t know what’s going off out there. Khurram edges the next delivery straight to third slip to give Robinson his eighth wicket of the match.
31st over: Pakistan 110-7 (Rizwan 22, Khurram 8) A loose delivery from Tongue is pinged through square leg for four by Rizwan, who then takes a single to leave Khurram with three deliveries to survive. Not sure about that tactic. Khurram is dropped, technically, when Cox gets a fingertip on a desperately difficult chance at third slip. Another edge flies through the slips for four more.
“It seems to me that amongst all the hyper-criticism of the BazBall era, one fairly big factor in its decline was overlooked,” writes Phil Harrison. “England lost Broad, Anderson and Woakes in the space of two years. That’s a huge thing and it’s no wonder it’s caused them to struggle – remember how Australia went back into the pack when Warne and McGrath retired in quick succession. Could it be that we’re only just now starting to plug those gaps?”
30th over: Pakistan 95-7 (Rizwan 15, Khurram 0) That was a nice catch from Cox, who reacted quicker than anyone when the ball looped up off Smith’s thigh. In a related development, Tongue and Robinson have taken 15 of the 17 wickets to fall.
WICKET! Pakistan 95-7 (Usman c Cox b Robinson 7)
Ollie Robinson strikes with the first ball of a new spell. Ali Usman snicked him onto the thigh of Smith, standing up to the stumps, and Jordan Cox ran in from third slip to snaffle the rebound.
29th over: Pakistan 95-6 (Rizwan 15, Usman 7) Tongue has a big LBW appeal against Usman turned down. England lose a review on an appeal that didn’t look quite right; Usman was outside the line of off stump.
28th over: Pakistan 93-6 (Rizwan 14, Usman 6) A terrific bumper from Archer hits Usman on the shoulder. Usman responds nicely with a square drive for four later in the over.
27th over: Pakistan 88-6 (Rizwan 13, Usman 2) Rizwan is good enough to push Tongue down the ground for four. He’s beaten for pace next ball and deflects it past the stumps for a single. Tongue is bowling ferociously. It’s not as primal as some fast-bowling spells because he’s attacking the stumps rather than the head, but it’s still quite thrilling to watch.
26th over: Pakistan 83-6 (Rizwan 8, Usman 2) Exemplary channel bowling from Archer, who beats Ali Usman four times in a row. He appealed for caught behind after the third; it brushed the hip rather than the outside edge.
25th over: Pakistan 83-6 (Rizwan 8, Usman 2) Never mind Test matches, Tongue hasn’t taken a ten-for in first-class cricket. His best figures are 9 for 98, it says here.
Pakistan have a long tail so there’s a luscious whiff of rabbit pie wafting round Headingley. It’s not fair to include Ali Usman in that – he has a first-class hundred – and he faces four deliveries of that Tongue over without alarm.
It’s the senior batter, Rizwan, who almost falls when an inside-edge deflects past the stumps.
24th over: Pakistan 80-6 (Rizwan 7, Usman 0) You know somebody is bowling well when Jofra Archer’s overs at the other end feel like filler. Muhammad Rizwan hits a boundary, that’s about it.
Josh Tongue has taken a wicket every 8.2 balls in this game. No bowler in Test history has taken eight or more wickets in a match with a better strike-rate. Not even George Lohmann.
23rd over: Pakistan 76-6 (Rizwan 3, Usman 0) Tongue’s match figures are Frank Tyson on steroids stuff: 11.1-0-53-8.
11.1-0-53-8 FFS.
Tongue’s previous best was 8 for 182 at the Oval last year, so it’s a landmark day for him. But what he really wants is a first Test ten-for.
It’s out! Salman Ali Agha was late on another rapid delivery that cut back to hit him on the knee roll. He was given out LBW on the field, reviewed in the hope it was going over the top. Almost, but not quite: it would have trimmed the bails and Tongue has his third wicket of the innings. Already.
WICKET! Pakistan 76-6 (Salman LBW b Tongue 4)
DRS permitting, Josh Tongue has taken three wickets in five balls!
WICKET! Pakistan 73-5 (Masood c b Tongue 29)
This guy is a wicket-taking animal. Masood pushes at a snarling delivery from round the wicket that straightens to take the edge and is safely grabbed by Ben Duckett at first slip.
Rob Key has worn many a custard pie of late, so let’s give him some flowers for picking Josh Tongue when Tongue was a Division Two bowler with a dismal average. What a bowler!
22nd over: Pakistan 73-4 (Masood 29, Salman 4) A loose ball from Archer is turned fine for four by Salman Ali Agha.
21st over: Pakistan 68-4 (Masood 28, Salman 0) There is precedent for deliberately bowling outside leg stump, particularly to left-handers – the Aussies had a fair bit of success against David Gower with that tactic – and England celebrated like a team who had pulled a rabbit out of the hat. Either that or they couldn’t believe their luck.
WICKET! Pakistan 68-4 (Saud c Lawrence b Tongue 14)
Josh Tongue strikes in his first over. He couldn’t bowl a wicketless spell if he tried. Saud Shakeel, who played a gorgeous straight drive for four earlier in the over, flicked a leg-stump delivery straight to Dan Lawrence at a kind of wide short fine leg.
Was Tongue bowling for that? The delivery was well outside leg stump, and Lawrence was in an unusual position for exactly that shot. Who knows.
20th over: Pakistan 64-3 (Masood 28, Saud 10) Saud Shakeel starts the afternoon with a leisurely on-drive for four from Archer’s second ball. If you’ve got it, flaunt it.
We’re back! And Jofra Archer has the ball in hand.
Lunch: Pakistan trail by 179 runs
19th over: Pakistan 59-3 (Masood 28, Saud 5) Atkinson and Masood give each other nothing in the final over of the morning session. The result is another maiden, Atkinson’s fourth in six overs.
That was a pretty good morning for England, who extended their lead to 238 before taking three early wickets. Pakistan have a helluva lot to do if they are to make a game of this.
18th over: Pakistan 59-3 (Masood 28, Saud 5) Dan Lawrence gets a single over before lunch, the first by an England spinner in this match. He’s an occasional spinner, with a first-class average of 47, but he does turn the ball and he starts here with a decent maiden to Shakeel.
“For some lunchbreak reading,” begins Krishnamoorthy V, “may I offer this?”
Indeed you may, and thanks for sending it in. Batting techniques are a hot topic, and it feels like a very good time to be interrogative seam bowler.
17th over: Pakistan 59-3 (Masood 28, Saud 5) Masood is beaten by successive deliveries from Atkinson. The first was a jaffa, the second a loose shot that was probably caused by the first. Atkinson does Masood on the inside with the final ball of the over.
Another maiden from Atkinson, who has quietly bowled a fine spell of 5-3-6-0.
16th over: Pakistan 59-3 (Masood 28, Saud 5) A soupçon of width from Robinson is enough for Shakeel to back cut his first boundary. Nicely played.
Pakistan trail by 179.
15th over: Pakistan 53-3 (Masood 28, Saud 1) A maiden from Atkinson to Masood. Just under 15 minutes to play before lunch.
14th over: Pakistan 53-3 (Masood 28, Saud 1) Saud Shakeel tries to pull his first ball and almost drags it onto the stumps.
Robinson took Test-best match figures of 7 for 77 on his comeback earlier in the summer. He could improve upon them here: his current match figures are 6 for 71.
WICKET! Pakistan 51-3 (Shafique c Brook b Robinson 15)
Ollie Robinson strikes! Shafique pushes defensively at a terrific delivery, bowled from wider of the crease, that straightens sharply to take the edge. Harry Brook does the rest at second slip. The line and length were so good.
13th over: Pakistan 51-2 (Masood 27, Shafique 15) Shafique drives Atkinson pleasantly through the covers for a couple, with three singles following later in the over.
In other news, Ben Stokes made a rapid 53 for Durham in the County Championship and Olly Stone has nailed Ollie Pope for nought. Tanya Aldred has all the details.
12th over: Pakistan 46-2 (Masood 26, Shafique 11) Jofra Archer is replaced by Ollie Robinson rather than Josh Tongue. It’s an unusually poor over from Robinson, with T-W-O loose deliveries that are both cut for four by Masood.
Though Pakistan are still in all sorts, this pair have found a nice balance between attack and defence.
11th over: Pakistan 38-2 (Masood 18, Shafique 11) England go up for LBW when A big nipbacker hits Shafique between the legs. It was too high, going down as well, and the discussion about a potential review is a brief one.
Atkinson is getting a bit of movement in the air and off the seam. An excellent, challenging maiden gives Shafique no scope to counter-attack.
I’m not saying he’s the second coming of Pat Cummins, but the best version of Atkinson – the one that bowled that over – is seriously good.
10th over: Pakistan 38-2 (Masood 18, Shafique 11) Archer tempts Masood with a wide, very full outswinger. Masood can’t resist a flashing drive and is beaten.
That’ll probably be it for this Archer spell: 5-0-27-2. No need to work him too hard when you have the bovver boy, Josh Tongue, waiting to come on.
I forgot to say that lunch is at 1.15pm today, with tea at 4.10pm.
Drinks: Pakistan trail by 202 runs
9th over: Pakistan 36-2 (Masood 17, Shafique 10) Gus Atkinson comes on for Ollie Robinson, who bowled a pretty good opening spell of 4-1-10-0. His loosener (sic) is an absolute beauty that beats a wide-eyed Masood; the rest of the over passes without incident.
Who needs a drink?
8th over: Pakistan 35-2 (Masood 16, Shafique 10) Shafique slaps Archer up and over the slip cordon for four. He counter-attacked splendidly from No4 in the first innings and is trying to do the same here. Archer almost kiboshes that with an outrageous wobble-seam delivery that snaps past the outside edge.
The next ball beats the bat as well. Archer has bowled some jaffas (and one or two freebies) in a spell of 4-0-25-2.