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'Box-office' Archer spell stirs 'relentless' England bowling display

Sky Sports Football ·
'Box-office' Archer spell stirs 'relentless' England bowling display

Mark Wood hails "high quality" England bowling performance as they dismiss Pakistan for 110 on day two of second Test at Lord's; Jofra Archer averages 90.7 mph in fastest opening spell of his Test career; Ollie Robinson is taking wickets at 8.84 a piece this summer

Jofra Archer bowled the fastest opening spell of his Test career as England produced a relentless, high-quality bowling display on day two of the second Test against Pakistan at Lord’s.

England skittled the visitors for 110 in their first innings , with Ollie Robinson taking 4-11, Archer 3-26 and Josh Tongue 2-27, with Archer having set the tone with a blistering five-over burst before lunch that brought the opening breakthrough.

According to CricViz , Archer's opening spell averaged 90.7 mph, with the odd delivery touching 94 mph. He picked up the flat-footed Shan Masood caught behind as Pakistan limped to lunch at 16-2 after 14.1 overs of superb pace bowling.

"That was quality, high quality," England fast bowler Mark Wood enthused on Sky Sports Cricket . "If you want to come and watch international sport at its very best, this was it.

"England were relentless with their line and length and passed it on to the next bowler and the next. It was top quality.

"Pakistan didn't do a lot wrong but the scoreboard didn't go anywhere because they were under pressure.

"Archer was very fast and intimidating, he ran in hard and just kept getting quicker and quicker.

"You could almost feel how uncomfortable it was for the batters from the commentary box."

Sky Sports Cricket 's Nasser Hussain pointed to England's varied attack as adding an extra layer of difficulty for Pakistan.

Tongue struck twice either side of the lunch interval, with Abdullah Shafique (5) and Babar Azam (8) poking edges through to the wicketkeeper and third slip, respectively, while Robinson overturned a couple of 'not out' lbw decisions on field on his way to stunning figures of 4-11 from 13 overs.

He is now averaging a staggering 8.84 with the ball since his return to the Test team earlier this summer.

"The challenge of facing this England bowling attack is the difference in paces, skills and angles," Hussain said.

"Robinson has a very high release point and is bang on the perpendicular, which allows him to get bounce.

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5News aggregated this summary from the outlet’s public feed. The full article, with all the context, is on www.skysports.com — the content belongs to Sky Sports Football.

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