Heroic stand puts England in dreamland

THIS match will forever be known as the Miracle of Manchester as England, seemingly dead and buried on at least three occasions during this absorbing First Test, somehow contrived to pull off an improbable three-wicket win against Pakistan.

- Chris Stocks

Last August at Headingley, it was Ben Stokes who inspired Joe Root’s men to a barely-believable chase of 359 against Australia with one wicket to spare in the third Ashes Test.

This time it was Chris Woakes, promoted to No7 in the order for this match, whose unbeaten 84 saw England chase down 277 on a wearing Old Trafford pitch.

Key to this heist was the 139-run stand between Woakes and Jos Buttler that rescued England from 117-5 just before tea on this fourth day to take them to the brink of a famous victory.

The sixth-wicket pair combined for 35.2 overs to drag their side back from the jaws of defeat before Buttler departed for 75, lbw to Yasir Shah, with 21 runs still needed.

There were more nerves when, with four needed, Stuart Broad also fell lbw to Yasir.

Yet Woakes kept his cool, hitting the winning runs off Shaheen Afridi shortly before 6.30 pm, to seal arguably England’s most memorable result against Pakistan since the ‘win in the dark’ at Karachi under Nasser Hussain’s captaincy in 2000.

It means for the first time in six series, England have won the first Test of a series and leaves them 1-0 up ahead of this week’s second Test at Southampton.