The first Test between England and Pakistan was a cliffhanger. There were moments where it looked like Pakistan had the upper hand, then it looked like England were cruising. The pendulum kept on swinging for four days at Old Trafford in Manchester. Eventually, it was England who emerged victorious in the first Test as they chased down Pakistan’s target of 277 runs with 3 wickets to spare.
England were in big trouble when five wickets fell for just 117 but a sixth-wicket stand of 139 between Chris Woakes, who remained unbeaten on 84, and Jos Buttler (75) took the match away from Pakistan during Saturday’s fourth day.
Leg-spinner Yasir Shah (4-99) had put Pakistan in pole position with two wickets as England slipped from 86-1 to 117-5 in its second innings. Earlier, Pakistan resumed on 137-8 and added a quickfire 32 runs before being bowled out for 169.
Former Pakistan skipper Shahid Afridi was disappointed with the end result as he believed the match was in their grasp. Meanwhile, Mohammed Yousuf and Michael Vaughan also reacted to England’s victory on Twitter.
Pakistan captain Azhar Ali maintained that the series is not over as he looks forward to the next Test match in Southampton.
“It’s disappointing but not over yet, there are still two Tests to go,” Azhar told reporters.
“There a lot of positives from this game, we outplayed England on most parts of this Test match.
“I wouldn’t say we lost the match in (our) second innings, but we missed a chance to knock England out of the game there.”
“We were sure we’d wrap it up if one more wicket fell,” said Azhar.
“But they (Buttler and Woakes) attacked from the off and snatched the game away from us.
“Sometimes you just have to give credit to the opposition.”
“We were in control of the game; we were one punch away from finishing the game off, but they came and dominated us during that period.”
