ENG vs PAK 2026, ENG vs PAK 2nd Test Match Report, August 27 – 31, 2026

England 248 for 9 (Smith 61, Cox 55, Abbas 4-56, Mohammad Ali 3-67) vs Pakistan

Ali turned the nip-backer right into a murals to account for Harry Brook, England’s main run-scorer in an innings victory within the first Take a look at, Smith, the top-scorer of this innings, and tailender Ollie Robinson.

That was after Abbas had run by means of the highest order of Emilio Homosexual, Ben Duckett and Joe Root because the hosts slumped to 36 for 3. He returned to take away Jofra Archer shortly earlier than dangerous mild stopped play with the vacationers needing only one extra wicket however most definitely content material to return again for it on Friday if it meant not battling dim circumstances with the bat.

Cox, batting at No. 3 in simply his third Take a look at, scored a disciplined half-century, sharing an important 67-run stand for the sixth wicket with Smith after making begins with Brook and Dan Lawrence, Smith’s 61 proving essential in digging England out of a gap, which had deepened to 77 for 4.

Pakistan’s efficiency shone brighter for his or her defeat by an innings and 103 runs at Headintley, however they have been significantly improved with the ball and within the area – regardless of a couple of lapses.

Mohammad Rizwan had barely hit the bottom, fully horizontal at full stretch, when he raised his proper glove in celebration at catching Homosexual down the leg aspect within the fifth over.

On the different finish, Abbas was delighted, and there was extra the place that got here from. Simply 10 balls later, Abbas claimed his 900th first-class wicket, convincing his captain, Babar Azam, to evaluation when Duckett was adjudged not out lbw and vindicated when the ball-tracking confirmed it was hitting the highest of off stump. After predictably opting to bowl beneath heavy skies after a rain-delayed begin, Pakistan had England 26 for two.

Pakistan’s fielding wasn’t flawless. An opportunity went down within the slips off Root and there was one other fumble within the cordon when one that did not carry nonetheless price them a unnecessary run to Cox. However, inside moments, Abbas had his third, rapping the again pad of Root, who hadn’t regarded settled by means of his 13-ball keep.

Abbas, who had bowled with first rate economic system however little impression in Leeds, had expertly manipulated the circumstances overhead and beneath foot at Lord’s, extracting loads of seam motion, all of the whereas nailing his traces and lengths, in order that by lunch he had 3 for 34.

Nevertheless, it was his seam-bowling companion, Ali, who produced probably the most eye-catching dismissal of the morning session with a gem that jagged again onerous by means of Brook’s wave at it and crashed into the stumps.

With brilliant sunshine beaming down on Lord’s halfway by means of second session, left-arm spinner Ali Usman, who took a bittersweet five-for within the first Take a look at, saved a lid on the Cox-Lawrence partnership. He conceded simply two runs in his first three overs getting the ball to grip and switch from a probing line and size because the England run charge fell under 4 an over.

But it surely was a mix-up between the wickets that broke their stand of 43. Shan Masood, who had dropped a sitter when Lawrence was on 10, swooped at midwicket when the identical batter prodded an Usman supply away and sprinted down the pitch solely to be despatched again by Cox as Masood fired the ball in to keeper Rizwan with a great deal of time to spare.

Cox went on to his second half-century in as many Take a look at innings with back-to-back fours off Usman, bookended by boundaries for brand new batter Smith because the spinner’s precision waned. So too did Rizwan’s when he misjudged what ought to have been a easy catch as Smith edged Ali behind.

Smith had come into the match beneath some strain amid a dearth of runs over the second half of his nonetheless comparatively new Take a look at profession. However scoring got here with ease upon his arrival on the crease as he and Cox added 60 runs collectively off 77 balls earlier than tea.

He broke a boundary drought lasting 15 overs for England by nicking one by means of the slips off Usman and he had matched Cox’s tally of seven fours by the point he went to the interval on 44 not out off 53 balls.

Mohammad Ali celebrates after castling Jamie Smith•Gareth Copley/Getty Photographs

This was simply his third fifty in 20 innings since his glorious run of 5 40-plus scores towards India final summer season, which included 184 not out and 88 in a dropping trigger at Edgbaston.

Salman Agha, Pakistan’s stand-in skipper at Headingley who made approach within the XI for the return of captain Babar Azam, was stood at second slip instead fielder when he took probably the most sensible catch to finish Cox’s innings. Springing excessive to his proper, Salman pulled the ball from the sky and twisted in mid-air earlier than holding on regardless of a heavy touchdown and Cox was left to rue a limp drive at Khurrum Shahzad and what might need been.

With a elegant straight drive, Smith introduced up his tenth boundary in an innings that promised a lot however then Ali delivered one other sensible nip-backer, not dissimilar to the one which accounted for Brook, and the consequence was the identical, beating Smith’s drive and clattering his stumps.

Ali made it two wickets in three balls with yet one more, barely fuller, one which got here again sharply and thru Robinson’s defences.

A splash for the riskiest of singles off the primary ball he confronted adopted by a nonchalant six off Abbas over long-off highlighted Archer’s innings earlier than he gave Abbas his fourth wicket trying to heave one other into the stands solely to be overwhelmed because the ball seamed into the stumps.

Then, with just below an hour-and-a-half nonetheless accessible to play given the delayed begin, dangerous mild halted the innings simply earlier than 6.10pm with the prospect of brightening skies wanting unlikely.

That performed proper into Pakistan’s arms as they averted a situation by which one other wicket would have had them dealing with the brand new ball in fading mild when stumps have been lastly known as simply after 6.30pm on an evenly matched day the vacationers would have relished after the primary Take a look at.