Ollie Robinson Dominates Pakistan as England Takes Control at Lord’s

On a murky, mischievous Lord’s surface, Ollie Robinson turned a tight Test into a lopsided one. Thirteen overs, four wickets, just 11 runs. Pakistan, who began the day with a chance to drag themselves back into the series, were instead bundled out for 110 and left clinging to the contest by their fingertips.

Even then, this pitch refused to let anyone relax.

By the close, England were 81-3 in their second innings, 261 ahead, the game lurching one way then the other as the ball continued to jag and nip like a live wire under the floodlights and heavy skies.

A day for bowlers. A day for nerve.

Robinson and Archer rip the heart out of Pakistan

England’s attack never let Pakistan breathe. Jofra Archer set the tone with a hostile opening burst, Robinson tightened the screw, and Josh Tongue chipped in at both ends of the day – first with the bat, then with the ball.

Pakistan’s reply to England’s 295 never really began. Shan Masood, pushed up to open in place of the injured Imam-ul-Haq, lasted just long enough to misjudge a 91 mph full ball from Archer and edge to Jamie Smith for one. Flat-footed, beaten for pace, gone. Six for one.

Tongue then struck with the last ball before lunch. Abdullah Shafique fenced at one outside off, Smith did the rest, and Pakistan trudged off at 16-2, the early optimism already draining away.

Babar Azam briefly threatened to change the script. First ball, he leaned into an 88 mph delivery from Tongue and lashed it through the covers. A few moments later he flashed Atkinson to the rope as well. Two strokes, pure class. Then the trap snapped shut.

Tongue drew the edge, Jordan Cox flung himself at third slip and clung on. Babar gone for a brisk cameo, Pakistan marooned at 30-3, still haunted by last week’s 171 and 135 at Headingley.

From there, Robinson took over.

He pinned Saud Shakeel lbw for 16, then did the same to Mohammad Rizwan. Both trapped in front, both undone by late movement that has become Robinson’s calling card. Any thought of a middle-order rebuild disappeared with them.

Ali Usman played on to Archer, the lower order folded, and the innings ended in brutal fashion when Archer uprooted Mohammad Abbas’s off stump. Pakistan were all out for 110 in 37.2 overs, nine down on the scorecard with Imam unable to bat after the calf injury he suffered in the field on Thursday.

Only Azan Awais offered real resistance. Dropped on eight in the slips by Brook, he dug in for a determined 46 and later admitted Archer’s opening spell was “probably the fastest” he had faced. It felt that way watching, too.

England’s tail twists the knife

Pakistan’s collapse owed plenty to what had come earlier.

England began the morning on 248-9, still vulnerable after Abbas’s superb burst of 3-4 in 16 balls had ripped through the top order on Thursday. At that stage, a sub-260 total looked likely. Gus Atkinson and Tongue had other ideas.

Atkinson, who already owns a Lord’s Test hundred, resumed on 34 not out with Tongue on one. Tongue glanced Mohammad Ali fine for four, then drove Abbas through the covers with authority. Suddenly Pakistan’s seamers, so dangerous the previous evening, looked short of pace and penetration.

The last-wicket stand stretched to 47, frustrating Babar and draining energy from the field. Only when he finally turned to left-arm spinner Ali Usman did the partnership break, Atkinson driving his third ball for four before holing out to end on 45. England’s 295 felt above par then; it looked enormous a few hours later.

Tongue walked off unbeaten on 30, a Test-best from No. 11 that would look even more valuable once the ball started misbehaving again.

New-ball chaos, then Root falls again

With a lead of 185, England had the chance to bat Pakistan out of the game. Instead, the new ball and Khurram Shahzad dragged the tourists back into it.

Ben Duckett lasted long enough to mistime a half-volley to mid-off for one. Cox, fresh from his first-innings fifty, was trapped lbw on review for 11. England 13-2, the lead healthy but the mood suddenly edgy.

Joe Root, as so often, walked in with England wobbling. He and Emilio Gay set about restoring order, leaving well, picking off the bad ball, and slowly pushing the lead past 250. The surface still seamed, the ball still talked, but for a while Pakistan’s energy dipped and England’s control grew.

Then Mohammad Ali struck.

Root, on 24, was pinned plumb in front by a nip-backer, the ninth time in 12 Test innings he has fallen lbw. It’s becoming an uncomfortable pattern for one of England’s greats, and Pakistan knew it. Ali roared, Root walked, Lord’s buzzed.

Next ball, Ali thought he had Brook as well. Given out lbw on the field, Brook reviewed and survived thanks to a thick inside edge. Pakistan’s chance at a double strike vanished, but the message was clear: no one was in for a quiet evening.

By the time bad light dragged the players off, England had reached 81-3. The lead, 261, looms large on a surface offering “a ball with your name on it,” as Archer put it. Gay and Brook had held firm, but the game still carries a sense of menace.

England stand on the brink of a 2-0 series lead with one to play. Pakistan, battered at Headingley and blown away again here, need something extraordinary from their bowlers on day three to keep this contest alive.