England vs Pakistan 2nd Test: James Anderson helps restrict Pakistan to 126/5 on Day 1

England had a wonderful Day 1 of the second test at Southampton as they restricted Pakistan on 126/5 before the stumps. The visitors clearly struggled in front of the fierce England bowling spearheaded by the seamer James Anderson. 

After winning the toss, Pakistan chose to bat as openers Shan Masood and Abid Ali came in to bat at the start of the day. It was just during the third over that James Anderson struck by getting rid of Masood (1 run) cheaply. He got a chance to play in the second test despite failing to perform well at the Old Trafford. 

Anderson again struck in the 31st over and this time he trapped the skipper Azhar Ali (20), thereby restricting Pakistan to 78/2. The 38-year-old seamer finally delivered after failures in his last three Test match outings. He is also close to becoming the first quick bowler in history to complete 600 wickets in Test cricket. 

Babar Azam came in to bat at number 4 and started pairing with Abid Ali who was well settled by that time. The duo started building a partnership but it didn’t last long as Sam Curran cleaned Abid Ali for 60 runs in the 38th over of the innings. 

The England pace attack was on fire as this time Stuart Broad removed Asad Shafiq cheaply on just one run. Then came in to bat was Fawad Alam who made his comeback in Pakistan’s national team after almost 11 years. Even Fawad barely survived the ferocious pace attack of the hosts and gave away his wicket for a duck. 

The match was reduced to 45.4 overs due to the rain and the umpire declared stumps on day 1 early despite only half of the overs being bowled due to rain. 

Babar Azam (25 runs) and Mohammad Rizwan (4 runs) are currently batting on the crease and they will start the day 2 with 126/5.