Great James Anderson came back to Southampton on Thursday with two wickets for Pakistan, as Fawad Alam’s long wait for a warning ended with a Duck.
After a combination of rain and bad weather, Pakistan was 126-5 on stumps on day one of the second test.
Anderson had taken 2-35 out of 15 wagons to be the first pace man in tests with 600 in eight wickets.
All four of England’s fasts were good, with only the opener Abid Ali in Pakistan dropping in the gaps twice, offering long-term resistance at 60 inches.
Anderson entered the match after taking just six wickets this season in three intervening matches, a costly average of over 41.
By his own admission, during England’s three-wind victory in the first test at Old Trafford home last week, he was not at his best with a 1–67 match haul.
The 38-year-old denied rumors: “To ask about Jimmy’s skill and records at your own risk,” he considered retirement and England Joe Root said on the eve of that match.
Then not long before the all-time leading wicket-taker from England hit Pakistan captain Azhar Ali.
He needed juice under damp conditions leading to Anderson’s bowling.
Masood was so clearly out of the question that he did not bother to review the decision
Pakistan would be 7-2 but Abid, one, was reprieved, as Dom Sibley dropped out of Stuart Broad for the third slip.
Azhar, after only one fifty in ten tests, has been under pressure since becoming a skipper in November. He was almost 7 when the ball trickled his stucccoes without dislodging the bails, playing in defense of the in-form all rounder, Chris Woakes.
The second fall Rory Burns dropped Woakes once again when he had Abid on the 21st.
— Luck ‘s gone-
Yet Pakistan’s luck came when Azhar delivered Anderson on the 20th and Burns this time held a fine, little catch to leave Pakistan 78-2.
A pair of former spinners are the only bowlers to have taken more than Anderson’s 592 trials.
Sri Lanka’s Muttiah Muralitharan is leading the way with 800, while Australia’s Shane Warne has 708 and India’s Anil Kumble has 619.
Abid finished the 99-ball fifties, six fours after tea.
But left-arm seamstress Sam Curran, remembered instead of fast bowler Jofra Archer, had Abid slipped through Burns with a ball bent across the right-hander after a few inswings.
To his obvious relief, Sibley held a slip away from Broad as Asad Shafiq fell cheaply.
Alam, a prolific run-scorer in Pakistan’s domestic cricket, played the last of his three previous tests in which he averaged.
Since replacing leg-spinning all-rounder Shadab Khan, the 34-year-old was the only adjustments on his side.
But Alam just took the dive for five minutes.
With a extremely open stance, Alam lbw didn’t t suit all-rounder Woakes for a 4-hit hit.
Alam was initially not released, but a analysis by England revealed that the ball listed ahead of his stumps, with Alam squared up.
In addition to recalling Curran, England made an unexpected move when Batsman Zak Crawley came back on Ben Stokes.
After moving to New Zealand to be with his ill wife, the last two matches of that series are missing for personal reasons.
