• England on top in Southampton

    Despite a rain-affected first day at the Ageas Bowl, England have made a good start with the ball in the second Test against Pakistan.

    The visitors won the toss and elected to bat first in what was originally a warm and hot day down on the UK south coast, but some early swing provided the English bowlers with something to work with – and James Anderson soon struck the first blow.

    READ: Pakistan bat first in Southampton

    The right-hander did what he does best by trapping Shan Masood in front with an in-swinger as the opener departed for only one.

    Abid Ali and Azhar Ali consolidated and shared a 72-run stand before the captain was sent packing by Sam Curran, who replaced Jofra Archer in the team.

    Abid Ali would reach his well-deserved half-century but he became Anderson’s second wicket of the day – caught in the slips by Rory Burns for 60.

    Stuart Broad and Chris Woakes then got in on the action by picking up the wickets of Asad Shafiq and Fawad Alam as Pakistan slumped to 126-5 in the final session before rain interrupted and then stopped play.

    England: 1 Rory Burns, 2 Dom Sibley, 3 Zak Crawley, 4 Joe Root (c), 5 Ollie Pope, 6 Jos Butler (wk), 7 Chris Woakes, 8 Dom Bess, 9 Sam Curran, 10 Stuart Broad, 11 James Anderson.

    Pakistan: 1 Shan Masood, 2 Abid Ali, 3 Azhar Ali (c), 4 Babar Azam, 5 Asad Shafiq, 6 Fawad Alam, 7 Mohammad Rizwan (wk), 8 Yasir Shah, 9 Shaheen Shah Afridi, 10 Mohammad Abbas, 11 Naseem Shah.

    Scorecard

     

    Post by

    Andre Huisamen