Abbas took nine, Shakeel made 97, and Pakistan still lost at Lord’s by 194 with ten batters
England won the second Test inside four days to take the series 2-0, with Ollie Robinson claiming eight wickets for the second Test running and Pakistan batting a man short in both innings after Imam-ul-Haq tore a calf.
Aug 31, 2026
Pakistan’s best bowler took nine wickets at Lord’s. Their best batter got out three short of a hundred. They lost by 194 runs inside four days, and the series with it.
England finished it on Sunday, bowling Pakistan out for 194 chasing 389. It is 2-0 with one Test to play, and the third at Edgbaston from 9 September is now about pride and World Test Championship percentages rather than a series.
Mohammad Abbas kept Pakistan in it on his own
Abbas, who passed 900 first-class wickets on the opening day of this match, bowled 42 overs across the two England innings for 130 runs and nine wickets. Four for 73 first up, then five for 57 as England were shot out for 208 second time round. He is 36 and he was the only Pakistan bowler who looked like he belonged at Lord’s.
Khurram Shahzad took three in the match at nearly five an over. Mohammad Ali took five, but leaked 156 runs doing it. Pakistan’s attack conceded 498 runs across two England innings that produced no centuries and only three fifties. Jamie Smith made 61, Jordan Cox 55, Dan Lawrence 54. Nobody batted especially well and it did not matter.
Ten men, twice
Imam-ul-Haq tore his left calf during the match, a grade-1 tear that has him resting for ten days, and he did not bat in either innings. He appears in both innings of the scorecard as absent hurt. Nine wickets ended each one.
That is a real handicap and it is not the reason they lost. They were bowled out for 110 in the first innings in 37.2 overs. Ollie Robinson bowled 13 of those overs, six of them maidens, and took four wickets for 11 runs. There is no defending a total like that whether you have ten batters or eleven.
Saud Shakeel, 97
The one innings worth watching came in a chase nobody thought was live. Pakistan were 14 for 3 inside eight overs, Babar Azam gone for 6 on his return to the side, and Shakeel came out and played properly. He put on 97 with Shan Masood for the fourth wicket, reached fifty off 54 balls, and was on 78 at tea.
He got to 97 off 122 with 13 fours and two sixes before Josh Tongue found the edge and Harry Brook took the catch at 169 for 7. Three runs short. Pakistan have had very little to enjoy on this tour and that innings was most of it.
Robinson takes the match award, England take 12 points
Robinson’s match figures were 27 overs, 11 maidens, 35 runs, eight wickets. Player of the match, as he was at Headingley, where he took eight as well and England won by an innings and 103.
The 12 World Test Championship points move England to 62 from 15 matches, a percentage of 34.44, which tells you what sort of cycle they have had. Pakistan stay on 16 from eight, 16.67 per cent, with six defeats. Australia lead on 80 per cent, South Africa are on 75, New Zealand 72.22.
Pakistan’s problem going to Edgbaston is not really the bowling. Abbas has been the best seamer on either side, and Ali Usman took five in England’s only innings at Headingley. It is that in four completed innings on this tour Pakistan have not passed 200 once: 171 and 135 at Leeds, 110 and 194 here. Their captain has scores of 8 and 6 since coming back from injury.