Old nemesis Shane Warne flattens England in the form of Yasir Shah

It was a sublime display of bowling from Yasir Shah that forced a middle order collapse for England. After the early departure of Alex Hales, all was fine as Alastair Cook and Joe Root took control and nullified the Pakistan pace bowling trio of Mohammad Amir, Rahat Ali and Wahab Riaz.

It was ironic that they couldn’t do well on a wicket where Chris Woakes racked up six wickets. But, more ironic things were to follow when Misbah turned to leg-spinner Yasir Shah for some revival. The leggie did not disappoint and became the wrecker-in-chief.

It was an artistic display of how to bowl on a wicket where the strip offered no assistance to the spinner. Generally speaking, the conditions were unpleasant for a spinner. The ball fizzed out of his hand every time but there was no ‘middle-east’ sort of turn available. However, Shah took the challenge and gave his full effort on every ball to eventually get better of the opposition with his relentless accuracy and attacking stump to stump line.

He halted the Cook-Root stand with the wicket of the latter. The loopy delivery lured Root to go for a big sweep over mid-wicket. But, the extra bounce did him as the ball skied up off the top edge and landed safely in the cups of Hafeez. The next to go was James Vince. This time, the trajectory was flat and beat Vince to hit the pad. Kumar Dharmasena took some time to give him out. Comeback man Gary Balance lbw fell leg before while a confident Bairstow was deceived by the leg break and was clean bowled. Moeen Ali was also trapped lbw and became his fifth wicket to register a five-wicket haul in his first test outside Asia and enter the Lord’s.

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Shah became the first leg-spinner for 20 years to take five wickets in an innings at Lord’s – the first since Mushtaq Ahmed, now Pakistan’s bowling coach. But, the only time when English team would have felt so helpless against a leg spinner was during the golden days of Shane Warne. And, guess what, it seems that Warne was perhaps the reason behind England’s downfall. The ‘how to wipe off the Poms’ tricks exchanged with Shah before the game seems to have played its role in the collapse.

The ‘Sheikh of Tweak’, who has shown his appreciation for Shah in the past, is perhaps the man who has the best knowledge of how to getter better of the Englishmen. His 40 wickets in 5 matches during the 2005 Ashes completely bamboozled the hosts at that time.

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Shah too has all the qualities to become as lethal as Warne was more than a decade ago.His numbers are simply stellar and speak about his ability. At the moment, Pakistan has the most number of wickets in 13 Tests (Australia’s Charlie Turner had owned this mark for 125 years). His has the necessary blend of spin bowling tricks and delivers the results for his team. And, with the backing of Warney, who has become a mentor like figure to him, it won’t be insensible to expect more of these match defining spells from Shah.