Pakistan's limp batting line-up once again fell in a heap on the opening morning at Edgbaston as England's in-form pace attack left the visitors slumped on a feeble 37 for 6 at lunch. Stuart Broad, the least impressive of England's fast-bowling trio at Trent Bridge, took three wickets while Steven Finn bagged two in conditions ideal for swing and seam which made Salman Butt's decision to bat look a little foolish.
Pakistan's batsmen had clearly decided that, after twice collapsing at Trent Bridge, they would try to battle through against the moving ball, but they took their defensive attitude to the extreme and showed virtually no intent. Nine runs came in the first hour - and four of those off one shot from Butt - and when wickets fell, as they inevitably did, no progress had been made. Imran Farhat and Azhar Ali combined to face 56 balls between them without making a run and England were never forced to move away from Plan A.
Farhat survived a review from the second ball of the match when James Anderson swung one back into his pads and replays showed it was heading over the stumps, but England didn't seem overly concerned and clearly knew plenty of chances would come their way. In the eighth over Farhat feathered an edge off Broad who was back on the ground where he took 8 for 52 for Nottinghamshire a couple of weeks ago.
Anderson, in his 50th Test, again made the ball do what he wanted with swing both ways. He cut Butt in half with one that zipped back at the left hander having previously hooped deliveries across his body towards the slips. However, it was Finn who removed the Pakistan captain when an uncertain push outside off resulted in a regulation edge to Graeme Swann at second slip; again the catch never looked like being missed.
The best grab of the morning, though, came from Matt Prior when he flung himself across in front of first slip to snaffle Shoaib Malik's outside edge to hand Anderson a deserved wicket. The nick would have carried to Andrew Strauss so Prior took a gamble, but committed himself fully to the dive and, like the slip cordon, is very safe these days.
Compared to what had come before, Umar Akmal launched his innings with a blaze of strokeplay with six off his first two balls then he whipped Broad over the deep square-leg boundary. It was a different story for Azhar, though, who couldn't even score off half volleys before being trapped lbw by one that nipped back from Broad. Azhar considered using a review but after some advice from Umar trudged off and replays confirmed the appeal would have been upheld - if only just - with the impact marginally inside the line of off stump.
Umar, who at least was playing a few shots, could have saved himself with a review but opted not to ask after Finn trapped him lbw with one that scooted through. Umar had moved so far across his stumps that he was struck outside the line and the third umpire would have been able to overturn the on-field decision.
Zulqarnain Haider, replacing Kamran Akmal for this Test, couldn't have made his debut in tougher conditions and received a lovely delivery first up from Broad which squared him up and grazed the outside edge. It really was a sorry state of affairs as Mohammad Yousuf, who ruled himself out yesterday after arriving from Pakistan, watched from the dressing room.
England 1 Andrew Strauss (capt), 2 Alastair Cook, 3 Jonathan Trott, 4 Kevin Pietersen, 5 Paul Collingwood, 6 Eoin Morgan, 7 Matt Prior (wk), 8 Graeme Swann, 9 Stuart Broad, 10 James Anderson, 11 Steven Finn
Pakistan 1 Salman Butt (capt), 2 Imran Farhat, 3 Azhar Ali, 4 Shoaib Malik, 5 Umar Akmal, 6 Umar Amin, 7 Zulqarnain Haider (wk), 8 Mohammad Amir, 9 Umar Gul, 10 Saeed Ajmal, 11 Mohammad Asif
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