ENG VS PAK - 1st Test, Pakistan tour of England, 2018

I would rather have 30 minutes of wonderful than a lifetime of nothing special, says a famous line from Steel Magnolias. Pakistan help cricket live that time after time. And about England, they are in need of a famous fix. When a raw opposition is batting, bowling and catching better than you on a rainy day in May, there's a problem. We'll see how they cope with it. Hope you've liked what I've typed all along and hope it's made you smile. With that, Pratyush Sinha takes leave alongside Raju Peethala, Srivathsa, Varun Dixit and Sulthan. See you on the other side, ta-ta.. [THE END]

Mohammad Abbas - Player of the Match: "My first match in Lord's, full house, so I can't be enough thankful. Thanks to PCB who allowed me to come here a bit early, play for Leicestershire and adjust to the weather. You need to bowl a bit fuller here. In Ireland as well, I picked nine wickets and I took eight here. McGrath and Asif are my idols in cricket. Have learnt a lot from them and I try to bowl like them." (Wasim Akram translated that for us!)

Sarfraz Ahmed - captain, Pakistan: "I am very proud of my team. Very inexperienced team -- 12 players who haven't played a Test here -- but we have a talented side. Our coaching staff and the bowling staff worked really hard. If you have to pick wickets in England, you have to pitch it up. We are working very hard on the catching. We dropped a couple in Malahide but we took our chances here. If you talk about the Malahide Test, it was a tough game. Ireland played very well. We got good practice through that before the Lord's Test. Babar is not fit for the second Test match."

Joe Root - captain, England: "We were outperformed in all three departments. First innings, we needed more runs. We did some really good work leading into this game. We made sure that we're ready for this game. Pakistan exploited the conditions and did more than perhaps you expected, and we played bad shots. No regrets about the toss. It's already going up and down. If we had batted well and gotten 250 or 300, it would have been a different game. We have to be a little bit smarter about how we get about things. It's a difficult pill to swallow. We have to be better and we have an opportunity to do that next week. We have shown a lot of character, and I'm sure we can do that."

Here's the presentations..

And it's all come on the back of England harrowingly opting to bat. They should have known that Pakistan sniff occasions better than anyone else. Turns up Mohammad Abbas, a bowler who nibbles it both ways to harvest four wickets. Hasan Ali follows it with four of his own, and England are shot out for 184 on the first day. One could have said that England were done there and then, but not when it's against Pakistan and their disposition to melt as often as fuse. Azhar, Shafiq, Babar and Shadab hit half-centuries to take a definitive lead and Pakistan surged again, braving the Buttler & Bess show to strike England into submission.

12:29pm local: Being a Pakistan fan is absolute work. Imagine being labeled par of Ireland at Malahide and then turning up at Lord's a few days later, only to take England by the neck and smite them into the ground. This is an absolute heist. In daylight. At the home of cricket. No Younis, no Misbah and no Yasir Shah. And look at what they've done. It's as if an English summer doesn't really arrive until Pakistan secure a Test win in London. It's as if it isn't really cricket until Pakistan have numbed you with disbelief.

Dominic Bess to Haris Sohail, FOUR, Pakistan win the Lord's Test and take a 1-0 lead. And only apt to do it off a full toss that's been clipped away through mid-wicket

Dominic Bess to Haris Sohail, no run, looped, blocked

Dominic Bess to Haris Sohail, no run, fired in, kept low, Haris Sohail tried to dig it out and missed

Dominic Bess to Haris Sohail, SIX, umm, it's off a full toss and it's flown off Haris Sohail's bat into the crowd at deep mid-wicket. Only took half a slog-sweep

Mark Wood to Imam-ul-Haq, no run, length ball blocked off the back foot

Mark Wood to Imam-ul-Haq, no run, another short ball that jags into Imam-ul-Haq and hurries him into getting his neck out of the line

David Gower saying that Root on his knees at silly point is going to get a caption somewhere, especially with England losing the first home Test of the summer

Mark Wood to Imam-ul-Haq, 2 runs, follows up with the fuller ball that's prodded to long-off. That's a two. And that brings it down to 8 runs

Mark Wood to Haris Sohail, 1 run, short of length and coming into Haris Sohail, who's tucked it uppishly wide of FSL in place. Another single. Pakistan inching closer

Mark Wood to Haris Sohail, no run, back to the comforts of round the wicket. Bangs it in, and has Haris Sohail ducking

Mark Wood to Imam-ul-Haq, 3 runs, gets on his toes and guides this with Wood's angle through to deep extra cover

Joe Root on his knees at silly point. Wood from over the wicket to the left-hander

Dominic Bess to Haris Sohail, no run, uses his feet now, takes the ball on the full but mid-off with his drive