England thrash Pakistan by an innings and 55 runs
3 Jun 2018 5:29 PM GMT
Leeds (UK): England completed a crushing victory within three days against Pakistan here at Headingley to record their first win in nine Tests and repair much of the damage done by their Lord's horror show.
This was a completely different performance from an England side who had been out-batted, out-bowled and out-fielded in the first Test but here have dominated Pakistan from the very first over of a game completed in virtually seven sessions because of rain on Saturday.
It was all over at 4.22pm when Stuart Broad took the wicket to dismiss Pakistan for 134 and earn victory by an innings and 55 runs to square a NatWest series sadly restricted to two matches.
If there had been time in the packed international calendar for a decider England would have been heavy favourites after they finally remembered how to play in their own conditions.
How England needed to perform here because another defeat would not only have been their eighth in 11 Tests but it also could easily have brought the Test coaching reign of Trevor Bayliss to an end.
That will not happen now but England cannot afford to start off as badly when they face India in their next Test assignment in August as they did in the first Test here because that would be a lot tougher to recover from.
For now Joe Root will be mightily relieved that a team who have been performing significantly less than the sum of their parts got it right just in time to avoid a serious bout of recriminations.
The third day could not have gone any better for England from the moment Jos Buttler went about extending their overnight lead of 128 in the most attractive and productive way imaginable.
This has been a successful return to Test cricket for Buttler who followed up his half-century at Lord's with an unbeaten 80 here, marshalling the tail to perfection and opening up when England were down to their last two wickets.
Buttler went to 50 with a six off Mohammad Abbas and hit another majestic straight six into the building site at the Football Stand End during an over that cost Faheem Ashraf 15.
By the time Jimmy Anderson became the last man dismissed England led by 189 and Pakistan knew they would have to bat considerably better to stave off an innings defeat. They were simply unable to do it. What will most please Root is that the wickets were equally shared out in the second innings with England not overly relying on their big two of Stuart Broad and Jimmy Anderson.
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