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| - Abid Ali made England pay for dropping him twice in the slips as Pakistan captain Azhar Ali rode his luck as the second Test got underway at Southampton on Thursday. When rain forced an early lunch on the first day, Pakistan were 62-1. Abid was 33 not out and the under-pressure Azhar 20 not out after they had forged an unbroken stand of 56. Pakistan, 1-0 down in a three-match series after an agonising three-wicket defeat in the first Test at Old Trafford last week, were soon in trouble at 6-1 after Azhar won the toss. By his own admission, James Anderson -- England's all-time leading Test wicket-taker -- had not been at his best at his Lancashire home ground. And he came into this match having taken just six wickets in three Tests this season at an expensive average of over 41 apiece. But England captain Joe Root said on the eve of this match: "To question Jimmy's ability and his record -- do that at your own peril." And in humid conditions conducive to Anderson's swing bowling, the 38-year-old paceman brought one back into Shan Masood to have the left-handed opener, fresh from his Test-best 156 last week, lbw for one. Masood's exit saw Anderson move to within nine wickets of becoming the first paceman to take 600 in Tests. Pakistan should have been 7-2 but Abid, on one, was reprieved when third slip Dom Sibley dropped an edge off Stuart Broad. Azhar was on seven when, playing defensively at in-form all-rounder Chris Woakes, the ball trickled onto his stumps without dislodging the bails. Woakes suffered again when Abid, on 21, got an outside edge only for second slip Rory Burns to drop a catch that should have been taken. It appeared an England cordon missing the absent Ben Stokes was too narrow, with Burns and Sibley getting in each other's way. Abid glanced a couple of elegant fours while Azhar, who has made just one fifty in 10 innings since becoming skipper in November, square-cut Anderson for his lone boundary in 65 balls. Pakistan's Fawad Alam, 34, has been recalled for his first Test in over a decade. The inclusion of the batsman and left-arm spinner was the only change to the side as he replaced leg-spinning all-rounder Shadab Khan. A prolific run-scorer in Pakistan domestic cricket, Alam played the last of his three previous Tests, in which he averages over 41, against New Zealand in Dunedin, back in November 2009. England, bidding for a first series victory over Pakistan in a decade, made two changes for a match that is once more being played behind closed doors because of coronavirus. As expected, batsman Zak Crawley returned in place of Stokes after it was announced the star all-rounder would miss the final two matches of this series for personal reasons after travelling to New Zealand to be with his ill father. Meanwhile fast bowler Jofra Archer was officially "rested", with England in the middle of a gruelling schedule of six Tests in seven weeks following their 2-1 series win at home to the West Indies last month. Archer's place was taken by left-arm seamer Sam Curran, who has been on the winning side in all his previous eight home Tests and is also capable of scoring runs down the order. jdg/gj
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