Cricket: Unlikely duo of Chris Woakes and Jos Butler hold on for Test victory

An audacious partnership of 139 between England’s Jos Buttle and Chris Woakes turned a thrilling first Test

England’s Jos Buttler, batting for his place, on his way to his best score in Test cricket. Picture: AFP

An audacious counterattacking partnership of 139 at more than four an over between England’s Jos Buttler, by his own admission playing for his future in the side, and Chris Woakes, without a significant score in Tests for two years, turned a thrilling first Test match on its head after Pakistan appeared to have victory in their sights at Old Trafford.

It was an astonishing turnaround on a pitch that played directly into Pakistan’s hands, so dry and subcontinental was it in nature, and yet against the odds England ultimately prevailed by three wickets, Woakes bringing up the winning runs with an edge past the slips late on the fourth day against Shaheen Shah Afridi armed with a second new ball that came just too late for the visiting side. One can only imagine what a full house of 20,000 would have made of the day’s drama.

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Woakes’s unbeaten 84 from 120 balls was his best Test innings and a revelatory performance, and the same might be said of Buttler’s 75 from 101 balls. Faced with a situation as much akin to a one-day match as a Test, he became calm and decisive in a way that he often is not in the longer format. It could be a turning point. Pakistan may reflect that they should have targeted Woakes with more short balls early on, as they had in the first innings.

When the sixth-wicket pair came together, England were 117 for five and still 160 short of their target of 277. They had also just seen Ben Stokes and Ollie Pope fall to unplayable balls that leapt from the surface.

When Buttler finally fell sweeping once too often at Yasir Shah, England needed only 21 and although Stuart Broad, promoted to have a swing before the new ball arrived, was also leg-before to give the hardworking Yasir an eighth wicket in the game, the batting side always looked to have the situation in hand. The result ends their miserable five-match run of losing first Tests of series. Buttler appeared to decide immediately that if the situation was to be retrieved — and his own place in the side protected after errors behind the stumps that cost his side more than 100 runs — he must flip into white-ball mode and force Pakistan into a tactical rethink.

He began by reverse-sweeping Yasir for four and by making good use of the conventional sweep, took Yasir for four more boundaries in a passage of play up to tea in which he and Woakes added 50 in eight overs. Woakes, meanwhile, got stuck into Shaheen, carving him through the off side.

The pair continued in the same vein after tea, when Yasir, after bowling 20 overs without a break, was given a rest and Pakistan turned to Mohammad Abbas to stem the flow of runs. He briefly applied a brake but 46 still came from the next 10 overs as young pace bowler Naseem Shah conceded 21 runs in three overs.

Buttler and Woakes were largely content after that to milk the bowling until Buttler slog-swept Shadab Khan for six to bring the target below 30.

The nature of the chase was shaped by a 10-over period in the afternoon in which England lost four key wickets for 31 runs against a ball 35-45 overs old, classic Pakistan territory.

Dom Sibley, who had done an exemplary job of anchoring the innings after the early loss of Rory Burns, was finally undone by Yasir switching back to over the wicket after a spell going round, drawing him into an injudicious drive that resulted in a sharp catch at slip by Asad Shafiq.

Sibley and Joe Root had laid a strong foundation with a stand of 64 and Root was looking every bit as assured as Sibley, busy in everything he did and prepared to reverse-sweep Yasir. However, Naseem now produced a little bit of magic, extracting movement away and extra pace to have the England captain edging waist-high to Babar Azam in the cordon.

All eyes turned to Stokes, the man who won a Test at Leeds last year after going in with 218 needed; now 191 were required. His problem was that as a left-hander he had to deal with Yasir targeting the rough outside his off stump.

Stokes got away one reverse sweep to the boundary but then Yasir hit a spot from which the ball leapt and almost imperceptibly brushed the bottom glove. Mohammad Rizwan did brilliantly to parry the ball in front of his face first time before catching the rebound. Richard Kettleborough gave it not out but Pakistan after some deliberation called for a review and sure enough replays showed ball and glove had been in contact.

The pitch had almost as many tricks as the bowling and 15 minutes later it produced another as Shaheen, round the wicket, got a ball to climb and take the shoulder of Pope’s bat and lob to gully. Pope looked daggers at all and sundry as he trudged off. There was nothing he could have done. England were staring into the abyss. Then came Buttler and Woakes.

At the start of the day, Pakistan’s tail wagged briefly but vigorously, 32 runs being added in 16 balls against Broad and Jofra Archer, both of whom picked up a wicket. Broad’s wicket gave him figures for the innings of three for 37 and for the match of six for 91. It leaves him with 22 wickets in three Tests this summer at an average of 12.09.

The Sunday Times