Jofra Archer bowled the fastest opening spell of his Test career as England produced a relentless, high-quality bowling display on day two of the second Test against Pakistan at Lord’s. England skittled the visitors for 110 in their first innings, with Ollie Robinson taking 4-11, Archer 3-26 and Josh Tongue 2-27, with Archer having set the tone with a blistering five-over burst before lunch that brought the opening breakthrough. According to CricViz, Archer's opening spell averaged 90.7 mph, with the odd delivery touching 94 mph.
He picked up the flat-footed Shan Masood caught behind as Pakistan limped to lunch at 16-2 after 14.1 overs of superb pace bowling. Please use Chrome browser for a more accessible video player "That was quality, high quality," England fast bowler Mark Wood enthused on Sky Sports Cricket. "If you want to come and watch international sport at its very best, this was it.
"England were relentless with their line and length and passed it on to the next bowler and the next. "Pakistan didn't do a lot wrong but the scoreboard didn't go anywhere because they were under pressure. "Archer was very fast and intimidating, he ran in hard and just kept getting quicker and quicker.
"You could almost feel how uncomfortable it was for the batters from the commentary box." Sky Sports Cricket's Nasser Hussain pointed to England's varied attack as adding an extra layer of difficulty for Pakistan. Tongue struck twice either side of the lunch interval, with Abdullah Shafique (5) and Babar Azam (8) poking edges through to the wicketkeeper and third slip, respectively, while Robinson overturned a couple of 'not out' lbw decisions on field on his way to stunning figures of 4-11 from 13 overs. He is now averaging a staggering 8.84 with the ball since his return to the Test team earlier this summer.
"The challenge of facing this England bowling attack is the difference in paces, skills and angles," Hussain said. "Robinson has a very high release point and is bang on the perpendicular, which allows him to get bounce. "Tongue is so far past the perpendicular, so that's why he finds angles to open the right-handers up and make them vulnerable to nicking off.
"And it was a box-office opening spell from Archer." Archer continued to prove a pest to Pakistan throughout the day, albeit without benefiting from a great deal of luck as he repeatedly threatened both edges of the bat - Azan Awais (46) playing and missing as many as 14 times to the quick. He'd ultimately helped clean up the tail - Pakistan's final five wickets falling for just 19 runs - to finish with 3-26. "He had no luck," former England seamer Stuart Broad said on Sky Sports Cricket.
Extract — continue reading at the source.
