Pakistan's players as they celebrate
winning the first test action
Pakistan foiled a gutsy England run chase to win a gripping first test by 75 runs at Lord's on Sunday.
Having
set the hosts a 283 victory target after their second innings was ended
on 215 in the morning, Pakistan's bowlers, led by leg spinner Yasir
Shah, provided a masterclass to bowl England out for 207.
Mohammad Amir, back from a five-year ban for spot-fixing, sealed victory when he clean bowled Jake Ball.
England
had never chased down such a total at Lord's and while Jonny Bairstow
was at the crease they appeared to still have a chance but he was undone
by Yasir when he was two short of his half century.
The end was nigh after that as the final three wickets went down for 11 runs.
Pakistan's players celebrated victory by doing press-ups in front of their jubilant supporters.
"It
is one of the top wins as captain and for Pakistan as a team," captain
Misbah-ul-Haq said. "I am very proud of the team and the way they came
out and showed really good skills.
"Today, mentally everybody was strong, and were patient. Everyone bowled well, especially Yasir Shah."
England
began the chase confidently with Alastair Cook striking a boundary off
his first ball, but the skipper was dispatched after he stabbed at Rahat
Ali's delivery and was caught by Sarfraz Ahmed.
"There's a bitter
taste in the dressing room," conceded Cook. "Some of the shots (were
risky) but it's up to the individuals to change.
"I always thought we were two wickets behind where we wanted to be."
Alex
Hales soon followed his captain to the pavilion after top-edging Rahat
to Mohammad Hafeez before Rahat removed dangerman Joe Root for nine
after he played a careless pull shot and was caught in the deep by
Yasir.
James Vince (42) and Gary
Ballance (43) chipped away at Pakistan's lead with valuable
contributions but Vince got a thick edge driving Wahab Riaz and was
caught at the second attempt by Younus Khan at second slip.
Ballance had just
struck Yasir confidently to the boundary when he was bowled by a beauty,
the ball jagging back from outside off stump after pitching in the
rough.
Moeen Ali hardly helped
England's cause, dismissed for two when he charged at a Yasir delivery
and was bowled to leave England on 139 for six.
Bairstow
and Chris Woakes stemmed the flow of wickets and kept the scoreboard
ticking during a tense afternoon but England eventually succumbed to
Pakistan's relentless attack.
Stuart Broad misjudged one from left-arm fast bowler Amir and was bowled for one.
Shah took his 10th wicket in the match when Woakes was caught by Younus before Amir finished it off.
"It's really frustrating but we've lost before," Cook added.
"We can bounce back. Credit to Pakistan. We're very confident we can beat them, but we have to get better."
Earlier
England quickly polished off Pakistan's second innings with the
visitors adding only one run to their overnight total of 214.
Wicketkeeper
Bairstow had faced criticism on Saturday, but he got rid of Yasir (30)
with an athletic one-handed catch in the first over as Broad became the
third English bowler to take 350 test wickets.
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