After a set of disappointing away performances in Tests, England were hoping this home series to bring them luck. Unfortunately, in their first Test home after nearly nine months, the team could not challenge their opponents and eventually got thrashed by nine wickets at the hands of Pakistan.

Alastair Cook had somewhat saved the first innings for England by scoring 70 runs when Pakistan struck hard and bundled out England for a poultry score of 184. The charged up visitors then had four fine 50+ knocks to give them a 179-run lead over England.

James Anderson and Ben Stokes’ 3-wicket hauls in the first innings weren’t any less important than the cheapest four-fers from Mohammad Abbas and Hasan Ali, but that couldn’t guarantee England a resurgence in the contest as their batting line-up crumbled once again in the second innings and at one point, became 110/6.

None of the batters from England were able to tackle the trio Mohammad Amir, Shadab Khan, and Abbas. Each of them took two scalps while allowing none of the English batsmen go past 12 runs, except for the skipper Joe Root who contributed 68 of those hard-earned 110 runs.

Jos Buttler and Dominic Bess then launched a counter-attack and stitched an unbeaten 125-run partnership which pulled the team out of the danger zone and dismissed the chances of an innings defeat for the hosts.

Both Buttler and Bess had picked up a half-century each on the third day but saw the team fall victim to another collapse on the next day as the remaining four wickets of England were gone for just 6 runs. Amir and Abbas shared those wickets and completed their four-wicket hauls as England set a puny target of 64 runs for Pakistan.

Despite suffering an early blow after James Anderson dismissed Azhar Ali for four runs, Pakistan got past the finishing line with nine wickets remaining as Haris Sohail and Imam Ul Haq posted their unbeaten innings of 39 and 18 runs, respectively.

England were never in contention for a victory in this clash and Pakistan dominated since day-1 and rightfully registered a comprehensive triumph over England. And this is the first time that England have lost a Test at Lord's in the month of May.

England are now in a must-win situation ahead of their second and final Test of the series at Headingly, where their failure to grab a victory would see Pakistan win a Test-series in England after 22 years. A defeat there would mean a whitewash for England at the hands of Pakistan for the first time in their own backyard. It will also be second Pakistan’s second whitewash of England in the last six years.