England v Pakistan: second men’s cricket Test, day two – live

Key events1h agoPreamble58th over: England 257-9 (Atkinson 35, Tongue 9) Gus Atkinson, who loves playing at Lord’s, would be entitled to turn down a single, but he takes one off Abbas’s first ball. Tongue responds to this show of faith with an extravagant waft that would be curtains if Babar Azam had posted a third slip. Abbas then raps Tongue on the pad, goes up for LBW and even persuades Babar to review, but it’s going down.Mohammad Abbas’ appeal is in vain. Photograph: Stu Forster/Getty Images57th over: England 252-9 (Atkinson 34, Tongue 5) Josh Tongue, who has a Test batting average of 5, makes sure he’ll maintain it by steering Mohammad Ali wide of the slips and down the slope to the Tavern boundary. Otherwise it’s all dots and Ali has done the right thing by giving Mohammad Abbas the chance to get on the honours board.The players are out there and Mohammad Ali is going to bowl from the Nursery End. I hope he’s got the memo….England batsmen Josh Tongue and Gus Atkinson come out to bat as the Pakistan fielders huddle. Photograph: Stu Forster/Getty ImagesOn Sky, Ian Ward has just done a quick interview with England’s assistant coach, Sarah Taylor. Asked about being the first woman among the England coaches, she reveals a nice detail. “The players just call me Coach,” she says, “which is how it should be.”As we had a shortened day yesterday, this is going to be a longer one. Play still starts at 11, but the intervals are a bit later than usual – lunch at 1.15pm and tea at 4.10 – and the close may not be until 7pm. In theory, there will be 98 overs in the day; in practice, this is England and they haven’t picked a specialist spinner, so their over rate may well be abysmal as usual.PreambleMorning everyone and welcome to something that looks suspiciously like a proper contest. After falling flat in Leeds, Pakistan came to Lord’s and stood tall. They won the toss and bowled well from both ends as Mohammad Ali enrolled in the Mohammad Abbas school of exacting accuracy. The fielding was patchy but good enough to restrict England to 248-9 on a surface that Stuart Broad had described as “probably a 250 pitch”.Today, Pakistan have two jobs. They need to take the last wicket: in an ideal world, Ali will tactfully leave that to Abbas, so he can take his rightful place on the honours board after collecting two four-wicket hauls here in 2018. And then the batters, led by Babar Azam, have to knuckle down and make their way to a first-innings lead of about 100.They don’t have the wind in their sails after Headingley, but they should have the weather on their side. Apart from a shower or two in mid-afternoon, the forecast is mostly sunshine. If you’re there, or even if you’re not, do say hello.MCC members queue to bag the best seats in the house. Photograph: Ben Whitley/PA