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AB de Villiers will lead Royal Challengers Bangalore if Virat Kohli fails to recover from a shoulder injury for the IPL opener next week against Sunrisers Hyderabad. According to Daniel Vettori, Royal Challengers’ head coach, Kohli will join the squad on April 2 and then reassess a date of return with the team’s medical staff.There has been no definitive update on Kohli’s right shoulder, which he hurt during the third Test of the series against Australia in Ranchi. After India won the series 2-1 in Dharamasala, Kohli had said he was not 100% fit yet, and was waiting for a final word from the Indian team physiotherapist.Vettori said there was no “clear picture” on Kohli’s return date. “He [Kohli] will come in on April 2. Between now and then, the BCCI doctors and physio will speak to us (on his condition) and our medical staff will get a clearer picture,” Vettori said as RCB assembled for the season’s first training session in Bangalore. ” Right now, we don’t have a clear picture on his availability. We’ll know in the next few days.”According to Vettori, de Villiers would be on standby if Kohli is unavailable. De Villiers, who will play for Titans in the Momentum One Day Cup final on Friday, will arrive in Bangalore on April 2. “The likely scenario is that de Villiers will take over the duties but we’ll answer that once we find out if Virat is out,” Vettori said.Kohli played a pivotal role in Royal Challengers reaching the final last year, but his absence would offer an opportunity for youngsters like Mandeep Singh and Sarfaraz Khan to take on more responsibility. “”Fortunately, we have a number of exceptional batsmen who haven’t got many playing chances like Sarfaraz Khan and Mandeep Singh. It’s a huge asset for us that someone else can fill in those gaps.”

West Indies batsman Dwayne Smith has announced his retirement from all international cricket. Smith, 33, who is playing for Islamabad United in the ongoing Pakistan Super League, confirmed the decision before the start of the second qualifying final against Karachi Kings in Sharjah. His last West Indies appearance came at the 2015 World Cup.Smith made his international debut on West Indies’ tour of South Africa 2003-04, beginning with the New Year’s Test in Cape Town in January 2004, after Marlon Samuels flew home with a knee injury. He made an impression straightaway, scoring a century on debut – a run-a-ball unbeaten 105, his only international century – in the second innings of the game, to help West Indies draw the match and end their streak of seven successive Test losses in South Africa. The team, however, did lose the series 3-1. Smith played only nine more Tests, scoring a total of 320 runs in the format. His last Test appearance for West Indies was in March 2006, against New Zealand in Napier.Smith had a far more substantial run in the limited-overs sides, where he also made useful contributions with his medium-pace, although his batting returns remained modest. Having begun in the lower order, Smith was promoted to the top order, including as an opener, after 2014 and did better there. Six of his eight ODI fifties came when he batted in the top three, and his average of 25.27 was better than his overall career average of 18.57. Overall, he played 105 ODIs scoring 1560 runs at a strike rate of 92.69. He also took 61 wickets in ODIs, with a career-best of 5 for 45 and three four-fors.Smith was part of two World Cup squads for West Indies in 2007 and in 2015, where his final appearance came against UAE in Napier. Following West Indies’ early exit from the 2007 World Cup, Smith spent close to three years out of the ODI and T20I squads before making his return in 2010.He was part of three World T20 squads – in 2007, 2012 and 2014. While he played only one match during West Indies’ title run in the 2012 World T20, he was picked in the next edition as the side’s designated opener and scored 125 runs in five matches. In 33 T20 internationals, he scored 582 runs at 18.18 with a strike rate of 122.78, although he only made three fifties.Smith has been a popular cricketer on the T20 circuit, over the last few years, turning out to play for franchises in the Indian Premier League, the Caribbean Premier League, the Bangladesh Premier League and the Pakistan Super League, as well as the NatWest Blast in England.

Scorecard
In a nutshellKumar Sangakkara’s best form since international retirement wasn’t enough to overhaul Lahore Qalandars’ top-heavy batting performance in the latter’s seven-run win. In an entertaining contest at the Sharjah Stadium, Brendon McCullum’s men struggled to deliver a knockout blow to Karachi Kings, which meant the win looked narrower than it actually was. Karachi’s chase of 180 looked an uphill battle from the start, with the beleaguered Chris Gayle holing out to long-off in the second over of the chase bowled by Sunil Narine. Karachi’s challenge, in truth, lasted for the duration of the 101-run third-wicket partnership between Sangakarra and Shoaib Malik. When the pair fell within five balls of each other, the chase swiftly faded.Lahore’s captain McCullum’s lean run also continued, as he dragged a straight delivery on for a second successive duck, but the rest of the batsmen demonstrated that the horror innings against Peshawar Zalmi, where they were bowled out for 59, had not dissuaded them from going for their shots. Fakhar Zaman and Jason Roy shrugged off their captain’s departure to plunder 57 runs by the sixth over. Zaman barely noticed Roy’s dismissal, or indeed the end of the Powerplay, as he and Umar Akmal continued to swing from the hip. Karachi did not help themselves, dropping a pair of fairly routine catches that would have sent the pair packing earlier. By the end of the 13th over, Lahore were 125 for 4, and looked set for 200, and while they didn’t quite manage that, their final score of 179 was good in the end anyway.Where the match was wonA slow start is often costly in any T20 contest but when chasing 180, it is almost decisive. Gayle looked a tortured shell of his usual self in his seven-ball stay at the crease, and Babar Azam played a lazy shot to gift third man an easy catch. Sangakarra began brightly, his timing as well as placement his vintage majestic self, but with Malik also struggling early on, Karachi only mustered 60 runs in the first nine overs. The innings really only burst into life off the back of a poor tenth over from Bilawal Bhatti, and 53 runs came off the next four overs. But the slow start meant Karachi’s asking rate never really came down to a point when the pressure was off, and Sangakarra ultimately fell playing the high-risk cricket that was the only option before the side.The men that won itNarine, the bowling equivalent of McCullum in T20s, has lived up to his billing all tournament. He was at his wily, unplayable best today, turning the ball sharply off the Sharjah surface with no batsman seeming to pick him up properly. It appeared that as long as Lahore could turn to him, they were ahead in the game. It helped, of course, that the two wickets he took were of Gayle and Kieron Pollard. The mystery Narine continues to carry in his arsenal was epitomised by Pollard’s cluelessness as he played all around an offspinner.File photo – Sunil Narine removed Gayle and Pollard•AFP

Fielding fitThe fielding between the two sides was particularly stark. While Lahore looked sharp and alert under the stewardship of McCullum, taking their catches and hitting the stumps regularly, Karachi were sloppy. Zaman and Akmal had comfortable chances put down – the former, unhelpfully, by Sangakarra – and Karachi regularly struggled to stop ones from turning into twos. Given that the margin of defeat was only seven runs, such sloppiness cost them dear and they can ill-afford such untidiness in the following games if they have to lift themselves from the bottom of the table.The moment of the matchThe abiding memory of this game will undoubtedly be the century stand between Malik and Sangakarra, boasting a combined age of 74. Sangakarra’s lofted cover drive, in particular, is a shot worth the clichéd admission fee on its own. On consecutive deliveries off the unfortunate Yasir Shah in the thirteenth over, he showcased both his finesse and destructive power, timing the first over extra cover for four. Yasir went straighter next ball, but was still brave enough to flight the ball generously. Fortune didn’t favour him, as Sangakkara slog-swept him – still gracefully, somehow – onto the Sharjah roof. It might not have been decisive, but it was certainly delightful.Where they standLahore’s up-and-down season continues, with McCullum’s men managing two wins and two losses. They have four points, and sit fourth in the table on net run rate. Karachi are yet to manage a win in their three games.

Yes, ties, plural. We’re misquoting on purpose here. Each season has one game more memorable than the rest, and January 14 was probably it. The two Sydney sides make you think of close matches, after last year’s thrilling final, but it doesn’t get any closer than two ties in the same match. Once in regulation play, again after the Super Over.And how the pendulum swung throughout. First the Sixers lost their powerful openers cheaply, then surged back through Ash Gardner’s hitting with Sarah McGlashan in support. Thunder’s experienced heads kept being influential, Rene Farrell and Stafanie Taylor with the early wickets, Erin Osborne getting McGlashan, then captain Alex Blackwell proving she can do anything, stumping Gardner off Taylor as a makeshift wicketkeeper.Twenty-three off the last three overs was below-par given the platform, and Thunder should have chased it easily thanks to Taylor’s 68 from 51 balls. She was out in the second-last over leaving 11 required from ten balls, but Osborne and Naomi Stalenberg couldn’t find the boundary, a succession of singles bringing them level.Enter Kim Garth, the Irish seamer occupying the Sixers’ international rookie spot. She hadn’t been near the playing XI until the previous day, but with Marizanne Kapp absent due to South Africa duties, the 20-year-old was being thrown the ball by Ellyse Perry for the highest-pressure job.She did it with distinction – four singles and a couple of twos. And when Alyssa Healy charged Farrell first ball for a lofted four, that should have been it. But her calamitous running undid that work. Healy drove straight to the bowler and ran blindly; Perry was hesitant, and then, expecting the gathered deflection to be thrown to the struggling Perry’s end, Healy didn’t bother to extend her bat into the non-striker’s ground and was instead run-out herself at point-blank range.Perry carved two through cover to reduce the target to three, then holed out next ball to long-on. Why the cool head of McGlashan wasn’t employed is a mystery, but Angela Reakes skewed a single and was run-out reneging on an impossible second. With one ball to face and two runs needed, Gardner could only slam a single to cover, Farrell standing over the stumps with ball in hand to render the second impossible. Fourteen boundaries to 16 was the countback – thanks largely to Taylor’s nine – and Thunder won on that technicality.The ties that defineThe thrill for the Thunder only lasted two days, before they stumbled against Hobart Hurricanes and again undermined their bid for the top four. And so it is down to the frenetic final weekend, a format we have become accustomed to in WBBL.Eight of 55 games remain in the regular season, and teams pair off to play the same opponent twice over consecutive days on Friday and Saturday. There are four likely candidates to make the finals, though other sides could yet force their way in.The Sixers are guaranteed a spot even with two losses. Brisbane Heat sit fifth, but can force their way well into considerations with two home games against the bottom-placed Adelaide Strikers.Perth’s Scorchers will finish top-two if they win twice against the inconsistent Thunder, but could be jumped if they lose once and Hobart Hurricanes win twice.Hobart is indeed where the main action will be, given the Hurricanes and Melbourne Stars are currently third and fourth, and their mid-table clash will dictate fate for so many teams beyond their own.Hobart is where the action will be heading for the final round•Cricket Australia/Getty Images

The sides that are boundEarthbound, that is. Those who have struggled to lift off, and now look to snatch the trailing rope of a rising hot-air balloon for a last miracle ascent – Thunder and Renegades.In short, if the Stars and Hurricanes split their contest one game each, neither of those two sides can pass them. But if either loses twice, and Brisbane loses once, the Thunder can still sneak in by beating Perth twice.The Renegades would need to beat the Sixers twice while relying on the Thunder to lose one, Brisbane to lose both, and one of the Stars-Hurricanes double to lose both. Tough gig.Adelaide Strikers cannot make the finals, and are left to work out what went wrong this season and address it for next time.The side left behindAs for the Melbourne Stars, it’s all a bit too familiar. Still in the top four, but after a torrid run of form since Christmas, they’re back in the same position as last season: a sudden death last round to qualify for the finals, with no momentum behind them. Last year it didn’t end well.In the penultimate weekend of group games they finished off the Strikers for the second time in a week, Jess Cameron’s 42 pushing the required chase above six an over before Adelaide again collapsed.But the fixture that mattered came later against Perth. It started well – they knocked over the international trio of Elyse Villani, Nicole Bolton and Suzie Bates inside six overs. Then the cavalry came in the form of Lauren Ebsary, unbeaten on 45, and Katherine Brunt’s fast 32.Sure enough, after Meg Lanning was removed early by Brunt, the Stars couldn’t rally and were held to a meek 97 in 20 overs. That made four losses in six starts. Melbourne’s early-season wins mean their destiny remains in their own hands. Just.The Stars’ destiny remains in their own hands•Getty Images

The sides that flyLast year the Scorchers underperformed relative to their strength on paper. Second time up they’ve earned their progress. The Stars limping run chase was in no small part due to Brunt and her England partner Anya Shrubsole pairing off with the new ball for Perth. Duos don’t come more frugal or effective.Perth didn’t miss out on more points against the Strikers either, led by impressive 20-year-old Heather Graham, a consistent contributor with bat and ball throughout WBBL02. Her 39 not out in 30 balls steered her side home.Brisbane’s Heat have found form at the right time, coinciding with Beth Mooney doing likewise at the top of the list. Her 45 was enough for an easy win over the Renegades, combining for another half-century stand with Kirby Short.They lost the reverse fixture due to a Duckworth-Lewis chase, but that wouldn’t have cost them much sleep. What will is that Indian signing Smriti Mandhana has torn an ACL, ends her WBBL and potentially a lot more cricket in 2017. A blow for a talented young player.Meanwhile, the Hurricanes keep on doing what they do best – finding new ways to win. After the Sixers knocked them off to begin the weekend, courtesy of Perry clocking yet another match-winning innings, the pressure was on when they returned home to face Thunder.Julie Hunter got superstar Staf Taylor for zero, before Kiwi international Amy Satterthwaite reinforced why she is one of the form players on the planet with 5 for 17. The Canes’ chase of 116 was never in doubt, and the team is never to be underestimated.

Australia are almost certain to tour Bangladesh for two Tests later this year unless further security issues arise in the meantime, Cricket Australia’s chief executive James Sutherland has said. Australia postponed their Test tour in October 2015 after receiving advice from the Australian government that there were “high risks” if they went ahead with the tour, and Australia also did not send a team to the Under-19 World Cup in Bangladesh in early 2016.At the time that the Test tour was postponed, the Australian government’s official travel warning stated that there was “reliable information to suggest that militants may be planning to target Australian interests in Bangladesh”. The wording of the official advice is now different, with a more general warning that militants may be planning to target “Western interests” rather than “Australian interests” specifically.”I think they’re quite high,” Sutherland said on ABC radio when asked what were the chances of Australia touring Bangladesh in 2017. “What we saw at the end of last year was the England team tour Bangladesh. We certainly saw very strong security around the team. We actually sent our head of security, Sean Carroll, over to observe for seven or ten days, just to get a little bit of comfort on the systems and processes that were in place.”Anything can happen between now and then, and we continue to monitor what’s happening in Bangladesh, but we work on the assumption that we’re going to play and we start to plan accordingly. But we certainly get a good deal of comfort from the way in which the security measures were put in place by the Bangladesh government, in conjunction with the cricket board over there. At the moment I would assume that we would be playing two Tests over there.”Sutherland said that while no dates had yet be fixed for the tour, the likely time was in August or September. Australia have not played a Test series in or against Bangladesh since 2006, when Jason Gillespie famously made a double-century in Chittagong, although they did travel there for a three-match ODI series in April 2011, shortly after the World Cup.”I think it is important for us,” Sutherland said of the tour. “The fundamental for us is that safety comes first, the safety of our players and officials, and all of that. We’ll make those judgments accordingly. At the same time, we have made decisions in the past to postpone a tour of Bangladesh. We were also the only team not to send a team to the Under-19 World Cup, which was held in Bangladesh not long afterwards.”Whilst there’s pressure for us to get back on the horse, so to speak, and to travel to Bangladesh, we won’t be compromising anything in our reviews and understanding, and getting to a level of satisfaction that the security measures are appropriate and at the level we need and want.”

Phillip Hughes’ batting partner Tom Cooper denied his team-mate and former house-mate was subjected to an “ungentlemanly” number of bouncers on the afternoon he was fatally injured in a Sheffield Shield match, the New South Wales Coronial inquest has heard.On the day Australia’s vice-captain David Warner also gave evidence via video link from Cape Town in South Africa, Cooper was subjected to hard questioning by the Hughes family’s legal representative, Greg Melick SC, and left the witness stand in tears.Apart from the question of how many bouncers Hughes was subjected to before he was struck on the side of the neck by a short ball from Sean Abbott on November 25, 2014, causing the arterial injury that led to his death at St Vincent’s Hospital two days later, Cooper was also pressed on a subsequent conversation he had with Hughes’ brother Jason.It is from that exchange that Doug Bollinger’s alleged sledge of “I’m going to kill you” was meant to have emerged. However, Cooper was emphatic in his denial of ever having heard or relayed such a phrase. Cooper did acknowledge that Hughes faced a “noticeable” increase in the number of short balls after the lunch break, but did not feel it was an excessive amount.”Yes, he was on top and they were trying to stop him from scoring,” Cooper said under questioning from counsel assisting the coroner, Kristina Stern SC. “He handled it with relative ease. There were no worries. I guess he was targeted, but I wouldn’t say it was in an ungentlemanly way. The tactic was used against him but it wasn’t for any other reason than to stop the run rate.”Melick turned his attention to the alleged words used by Bollinger. Cooper said the phrase had not been used. “I’m confident it didn’t happen,” he said. “If it had of happened I would have remembered it. It’s quite personal, it would stick in your mind.”The Melick cross-examination was exceptionally tense, including a refusal from the Coroner, Michael Barnes QC, to subject Cooper to footage of the over leading up to the fatal blow. Cooper recalled speaking to Jason Hughes, and of telling him that it had been “a tough period of play, with plenty of short stuff”.However Cooper strongly denied relaying Bollinger’s alleged sledge to Jason Hughes despite repeated questioning by Melick, responding “no”, more than once.The officiating umpires Mike Graham-Smith and Ash Barrow, plus the long-time international umpire and ICC training manager Simon Taufel, were also questioned. Graham-Smith reported that there had been no sledging out of the ordinary during the match, and also that he did not feel the need to caution the NSW bowlers for intimidatory bowling.Taufel had reviewed footage of the match, and said there had been “nothing to indicate the umpires should have done anything differently on the day”.Warner’s evidence, which closed proceedings for the day, focused largely on Hughes’ level of comfort against short bowling. “It looked like he was in control of everything he was doing,” Warner said of Hughes. “He was playing quite comfortably.” Warner added that the ball that struck Hughes had simply done so as the result of an “error of judgement”.The conclusion of Warner’s testimony also ended the involvement of players in the inquest. Abbott has not been required to appear. The inquest continues until Friday.

Left-arm spinner Rangana Herath is set to become the oldest player to lead a Test team for the first time since Somachandra de Silva in 1983, after he was named captain of Sri Lanka for the tour of Zimbabwe because Angelo Mathews is injured.Sri Lanka’s regular vice-captain, Dinesh Chandimal, was also unavailable for the two-Test series because of a thumb injury sustained during a domestic game, for which he had to have surgery. Herath, 38, will be only the second bowler to lead Sri Lanka in Tests, after de Silva.Mathews had torn his calf during the fourth ODI against Australia in August and had not recovered sufficiently, despite being named in the original squad for the tour of Zimbabwe on October 21. He is expected to be out of action for three weeks and is doubtful for the tri-series in Zimbabwe, also involving West Indies, that follows the Tests. No replacement was named yet for Mathews.Herath played 71 ODIs and 17 T20Is for Sri Lanka and did not captain in those formats either. He retired from limited-overs cricket in April this year to focus on Test cricket and played the defining role – 28 wickets – in Sri Lanka’s 3-0 whitewash of Australia in July and August. Seventeen years after having made his debut in 1999, Herath is set to make his captaincy debut, in his 74th Test.

Scorecard and ball-by-ball detailsFile photo – Mohammad Nawaz struck twice in the final over•Chris Whiteoak

Karachi Whites threatened to chase down 183 with a rapid 61-run opening stand and late blows from Tariq Haroon and Sohail Khan, but Mohammad Nawaz defended ten runs off the final over to give Karachi Blues the National T20 Cup title.With Whites needing 11 off the last over with four wickets in hand, Mohammad Hasan reverse-swept Nawaz’s first ball for four. Nawaz came back with a dot and then an arm-ball that took Hasan’s middle stump. Azam Hussain sliced a couple over the covers before falling lbw off the next ball. It ultimately boiled down to five off the last ball. Mir Hamza heaved at it, and could only manage a double.Nawaz, playing only his second game of the tournament, finished with figures of 4 for 26. He had taken the first two wickets of the Whites’ innings as well. He bowled Asif Zakir for 32, and in his next over removed Asad Shafiq for 6. The two wickets dragged Whites back after they had raced to 60 in the first seven overs.Nawaz was helped by his fellow spinners – Saeed Ajmal, who capped the tournament as the leading wicket-taker with 20 scalps, and Mohammad Asghar. They picked up two wickets each. Karachi Whites eventually got to 179 for 8 thanks to late cameos from Tariq and Sohail. Haroon hit 38 off 17 balls, while Sohail 24 off 11 balls.Blues’ win was set up by half-centuries from Khurram Manzoor and Fawad Alam. Alam set about reviving the innings after the early loss of the openers, with a brace of pulled fours. Manzoor, becalmed till then, struck three fours in four balls, and motored to his half-century in 36 balls, bringing it up in the 15th over. By then, Blues were 118 for 2.Manzoor kicked into a higher gear when he crashed back-to-back sixes off Azam in the 17th over. But he fell next ball, skewing a catch to gully. Alam then reached his own half-century off 35 balls, and was assisted by Mohammad Sami’s unbeaten 20 off 10 balls. Blues took 64 off the last five overs, and it proved just enough to deny Whites.

Shortly after the South African team were told Dean Elgar would not be able to play the second Test against New Zealand, Quinton de Kock volunteered to replace him.”I just thought let me just do it. I didn’t see anybody else doing that job,” de Kock said.Although South Africa could have used either Stiaan van Zyl or Temba Bavuma, de Kock thought the 16 times he has opened in first-class cricket would stand him in good stead to do it in Centurion, and take the heat of a team-mate who had tried and failed to do it before. “I have a bit of experience at opening in red-ball cricket. I thought that since Stiaan has had a go, let me just rather go there and do it and do what I can for the team,” de Kock said.Despite scoring 82 runs and featuring in the first century opening stand since 2013, when asked if it is something he would consider doing again, de Kock said one word: “No.”He admitted he found it difficult to stay defensive for as long as he did, although he was pleasantly surprised by his own restraint, which had him see off 79 dot balls. “Opening in Test cricket is an under-rated job. It’s a different level, it’s not the same as opening the batting in one-day and T20 cricket. The ball moves around a lot and it tests your technique and your patience,” de Kock said. “I actually learnt a lot about myself, like where to be tight and how to play certain balls. I think it’s the most I’ve ever left a ball in my career. I am proud of myself for doing that. It’s quite nice knowing that I can do that.”And now that he knows, he is happy to hand the reins back to Elgar when he recovers from four weeks on the sidelines. “I think that’s more for Dean and Stephen. I’ll stay at six and seven, thanks,” de Kock said.In this match, though, de Kock will have to open the batting again. He is fairly confident the surface will not get any more challenging than it was on the first morning. “I think it’s going to stay the same and maybe get a bit quicker. This morning it was soft and spongy, but it’s a good wicket. I think we can take the match five days.”If that happens, it will likely mean de Kock will also spend a significant amount of time in the field but he is not too concerned about the effect that may have on his batting later on. “We’ll have to see the situation, but I am just going to keep my mind open.”At least conditioning is not an issue for him. De Kock has spent some time training with former international Mark Boucher and the biggest takeaway was a focus on fitness. “He just grinds me, makes me work hard. He loves the fitness part of keeping and I feel fitter,” de Kock said. “It’s the stuff I know but he just does it to an extreme level.”For now, de Kock can put his feet up a little and watch the rest of the line-up build the South African total. He is particularly hopeful of JP Duminy reaching three figures after a lean patch that has stretched back more than two years. “JP has been working very hard lately. For him to score a hundred will be a massive boost. I hope he does,” de Kock said. “It will be nice to see a team-mate who has been under pressure off the field do well.”

Scorecard and ball-by-ball detailsChris Woakes claimed his tenth wicket of the match when he removed Sarfraz Ahmed•Getty Images

If there were any doubts about how well prepared Pakistan were to challenge England in this series, they should have now been dispelled. The progress made by Alastair Cook’s side has hinged on their ability to seize key moments in a Test but at Lord’s they have come up against experienced and skilful opposition who refused to buckle when the pressure mounted.A second five-wicket haul from Chris Woakes – giving him ten in the match for the first time in Tests – provided the spearhead for England’s efforts to wrest back control after Pakistan had secured a valuable first-innings lead on a pitch that was beginning to exhibit signs of variable bounce. Punchy 40s from Asad Shafiq and Sarfraz Ahmed kept England at arm’s length, however, and they were facing a target approaching 300 and prolonged fourth-innings examination at the hands of Yasir Shah in order to win the first Test.Sarfraz was dropped on 36 by Jonny Bairstow, another unwanted entry on his wicketkeeping ledger, and his seventh-wicket partnership with Yasir, promoted up the order after taking 6 for 72 in England’s innings, took the score on by another 40 valuable runs. Woakes then chipped out Sarfraz and Wahab Riaz in his third demanding spell as stumps approached to leave the contest finely poised.England have won only one of their last five Tests at Lord’s and, with the sun beating down on basking MCC members, they had to fight tooth and nail to prevent another match drifting away from them. None of the five completed first-class matches on the ground this season had produced a result – no team had even managed 20 wickets – but that sequence is set to end.When Pakistan were 60 for 4 during the afternoon England had visions of inducing a complete collapse but a strange, staccato innings from Younis Khan nevertheless managed to hold things together. Frequently jumping into position, playing the ball with one or both legs in the air and appearing about as comfortable as a man trying to fight his way through a hedge, he survived two lbw reviews on DRS and battled his way to 25 from 95 balls before being the fifth man out, chopping Moeen Ali on to his stumps during the evening session.His 69-run partnership with Shafiq prevented Pakistan from being ambushed after they had lost 3 for 16, including captain Misbah-ul-Haq for a two-ball duck. Shafiq was by far the more fluent, although he needed some luck early on, seeing a delivery from Moeen miss everything after spinning inside a drive and then edging Jake Ball wide of a motionless James Vince at third slip. His next delivery was crunched more authoritatively through point for four more and he mixed attack and defence well until Woakes speared a delivery between bat and pad to hit the off bail.Woakes was curiously held back by Cook, despite taking six wickets in the first innings, but he made his first breakthrough after lunch with a well-executed plan to have Shan Masood taken at slip. Having bowled a series of deliveries coming back into the left-hander, then drawing him into the drive with one pitched up, Woakes shortened his length and pushed the ball across to take the outside edge.With Azhar Ali and Younis becalmed, Woakes struck again. For the second time in match, Azhar left the field shaking his head after a failed with a review against a tight lbw decision, Hawk-Eye siding with umpire Joel Wilson’s decision that the ball would have gone on to clip leg stump.Cook had brought Moeen into the attack without delay, perhaps as a show of faith in his spinner, and he even burned a review for a bat-pad catch against Azhar two balls before lunch. Moeen returned in the afternoon and he gained a measure of revenge for his first-innings chasing by Misbah when Pakistan’s captain attempted to impose himself again and sent his second ball high towards deep midwicket, where Alex Hales took a good running catch.Pakistan’s top order had been corralled into a corner, with England taking three wickets at a cost of 20 runs in 15 overs after lunch. They used their second review shortly after against Younis, who had succeeded in getting a bit of bat on a delivery from Ball to save him from being lbw; and it was then nearly 75 for 5, when Wilson eventually raised his finger to Younis, who jumped across to be hit in front of leg stump in Steven Finn’s third over. DRS overturned the umpire’s decision this time, with the ball shown to be going ever-so-slightly high and wide.The morning had been unquestionably Pakistan’s, after they gained a 67-run lead on first innings and then increased that beyond three figures for the loss of Mohammad Hafeez – whose ill-judged slash at Stuart Broad resulted in a sharp catch to second slip – in 17 overs against the new ball.England would have hoped to get closer to Pakistan’s first-innings total but Yasir took his tally to six wickets and Woakes was left stranded as the last three wickets fell 12 runs inside four overs.Misbah began with a combination of Wahab’s pace and Yasir’s wiles and the pair saw off England’s innings within 40 minutes of the first session. Broad struck one boundary off Wahab but was then worked over by a succession of short balls, before a brace of yorkers ended his stay. The first flew through past leg stump but Broad did not heed the warning and hung back again to be bowled off his boot next ball.Finn has been known to block up an end and Woakes was happy to let him have the strike but he fell to Yasir, trapped in front of leg stump by a ball that skidded on. That gave Yasir the first six-for by a Pakistan spinner in England since Mushtaq Ahmed at The Oval in 1996. It was also the 82nd wicket of his short Test career – the most by any player after 13 matches.Ball sliced a four off Yasir for his first Test runs but he was run out from the first ball of the next over, with Woakes pushing for two to retain the strike. Wahab completed the dismissal at the bowler’s end and Pakistan were congratulating themselves on a job well done before the third umpire confirmed Ball’s fate.