• England 192; Pakistan 42-0
• Matt Prior makes 70 not out
No bowler in the world took more Test match wickets last year than Pakistan's Saeed Ajmal, a man of many tricks. He bowls an off-break but then he can send it scurrying the other way with no discernible change in action except a flick of the wrist, the much-vaunted doosra. And now there is another ball, something that scuttles through straight and a little bit faster, sent down with a slingy low arm that heads into Lasith Malinga territory. There are those who still query his action but it adds up to a mysterious package that has bamboozled batsmen the world over.
Now it was England's turn and, for most of the 24 and a half overs he sent down on the opening day of this first Test, they would have had more luck deciphering a Sanskrit tablet such were their collective neuroses. By the time he had completed five early overs, Ajmal had already taken three prime England wickets. When the players left the field for tea he had completed a five-wicket haul, surely a collector's item for a spinner in the opening two sessions of a series. And when he had Jimmy Anderson leg before wicket, the fifth such decision he gained in the innings, he had completed figures of seven for 55, the best of a relatively brief 18-match career and obliterating Morne Morkel's best return on this ground.
England made 192 and were grateful to Matt Prior that it was not something altogether more humiliating. By the lunch interval, with the scoreboard reading 52 for five, a massacre seemed possible. Three Pakistan spinners at that stage had combined figures of four for 13 from 17 overs and, with the pitch at this stage showing not even a sign of turn to offer them particular help, many watchers had already written off the match. Prior, though, played beautifully, with common sense and a watchful technique – playing the ball late with no early commitment – that eluded his team-mates. He made an unbeaten 70, adding in the process 57 for the eighth wicket with Graeme Swann, who put bat firmly to ball and hit half a dozen good boundaries in making 34.
It was a total that at least kept England in the match, although, aside from when Anderson beat the bat with the new ball, the openers Mohammad Hafeez and Taufeeq Umar batted comfortably enough through 15 overs to the close and will resume the second day together having added 42. Already, then, England know that they will have a battle on their hands over these three Tests.
This was certainly their worst start to a match since India reduced them to 124 for eight at Trent Bridge last summer and worst to a series since Peter Siddle took a first-day hat-trick in Brisbane. But from Trent Bridge came an overwhelming win by 319 runs, and from Brisbane a memorable drawn match and eventual memorable series win. And barely two months since, Sri Lanka, bowled out for 197 on the first day on this ground, and conceding a first-innings deficit of 314, still recovered to draw the match.
England will hope for the sort of reverse swing that Umar Gul began to find later in the innings, if a little earlier than the 50th over. There is, despite the fortunes of the day, a lot of cricket to be played yet in this match.
This, though, cannot mask the abject way in which England attempted to cope with the spin trio, something that is indigenous to the upbringing of England batsmen and that will not truly be rectified until techniques, not involving the sweep as the first – and frequently only – attacking option, are learned in the formative years, and preferably in the training camps on the subcontinent. At the stage England's players have reached now it is difficult to teach old dogs new tricks.
For a while, the haplessness became almost comical. Against the new ball, there was the familiar sight of Alastair Cook bedding in by flagging it past to the keeper like a traffic policeman on point duty. Misbah-ul-Haq, though, is a canny cricketer. On came not Ajmal, nor the left arm spinner, Abdur Rehman, but Mohammad Hafeez, with his off-breaks. Hafeez prefers the new ball, and skids on quickly: Cook went for the cut, edged and the job was done. Hafeez sent down five overs and was not seen again until the innings was drawing to a close.
Almost immediately, England lost Jonathan Trott who feathered down the leg side a short ball from the paceman Aizaz Cheema, a stocky robust right-armer, preferred to the two left-armers in the squad and who was to bend his back later and work up a commendable head of steam.
Then Ajmal took over, immediately bowled Andrew Strauss with the last ball of his first over as the England captain attempted to pull a length delivery, had Ian Bell caught behind first ball with his next delivery that held its line and, three balls later, had Kevin Pietersen – greeted by the introduction of Rehman and playing with exaggerated caution for 29 deliveries that brought him two runs only – lbw as, stretching forward with bat well ahead of pad, he played inside the line of a straight ball.
This is an important year for Eoin Morgan, and for his first 46 balls he coped well, playing late, working his singles and once late-cutting Ajmal deliciously. Then, for an unaccountable reason, he attempted a slog-sweep, missed and was another lbw victim, a number added to almost immediately by Stuart Broad who was plumb, chose to review it nonetheless, and dispensed with the last one available to his side as a result. Broad's irritating penchant for wasteful referrals have gathered a name: L'Oréal referrals. Because he is worth it.