England extend lead to 261 at Lord’s after bowling Pakistan out for 110 in second Test
England stretched their advantage to 261 in the second Test against Pakistan at Lord’s on Friday, August 28, 2026, after bowling Pakistan out for 110; the hosts were 81-3 in their second innings when bad light halted play.
England’s first-innings total of 290 gave them a 180-run lead after Pakistan’s batting collapse, and Pakistan entered the match without opener Imam-ul-Haq, who suffered a left calf strain while fielding early on Thursday, August 27, 2026, and will not return. Pakistan has not yet reached 180 in any innings during the series. The contest follows England’s innings victory in the first Test at Leeds last week.
England’s seam attack dominated Pakistan’s lineup. Ollie Robinson finished with 4-11 from 13 overs including six maidens, Jofra Archer took 3-26 from 11.2 overs and produced the fastest new-ball spell of his career, Josh Tongue claimed two wickets, and Gus Atkinson was described as luckless. Archer said: “I could probably play until 40 at this rate (with this attack). It's really nice having the extra seamers in the lineup. It's unbelievable when everybody is fit and firing. Each day it will be someone else's turn.”
Pakistan were dismissed in 37.2 overs, with the bowlers back in action just over four hours after England completed their first innings at 290 at noon. The only notable resistance came from Novice opener Azan Awais, who faced 102 balls for 46 and batted across 35 overs at Lord's after being dismissed first ball in Leeds. Awais, who debuted in May with a century in Bangladesh and finished four runs short of what would have been his third fifty, said to the BBC: “I survived a good innings and built a little bit of my confidence.”
Awais’s 46 came with limited support—Pakistan’s next-best contribution on the scoreboard was 20 extras—and he was dropped on 8 off Atkinson, overturned a given-out decision on 43, then fell when he top-edged a pull to the boundary off Robinson. Robinson had earlier removed Saud Shakeel and Mohammed Rizwan to expose the tail and later added Shahzad and Awais.
Tongue struck at the lunch interval, removing Abdullah Shafique for 5 via a caught-behind after England reviewed, and then had Babar Azam shortly after lunch; Babar, returning from a finger injury that kept him out of the first Test, hit a couple of boundaries through the covers before edging Tongue to third slip for 8. Tongue also recorded a career-best batting score of 30 not out in the morning.
England’s lower order had recovered earlier in the day: they resumed their first innings at 248-9 and added a 10th-wicket stand of 47, 42 of those runs coming on Friday, before Atkinson fell as the last man out for 45. In Pakistan’s second session, medium-pacers Khurram Shahzad and Mohammad Ali removed Ben Duckett, Jordan Cox and Joe Root in the last session; Duckett fell in the second over, Cox was trapped on the back pad in the fourth, and Root was given out lbw for 24 after a review that left him out for the ninth time in his last 12 Test innings.
England won the first Test in Leeds by an innings last week and may yet repeat the three-day finish and clinch the three-match series.
