CRICKET: The sleeping giant awoke at Lord's yesterday evening to put Pakistan on the rack in the first Test. Finding the elusive rhythm that appeared to have deserted him since his comeback from shin injury, Steve Harmison found pace and bounce with the new ball to punch a hole in the Pakistan top order as they set out in pursuit of England's 528 for nine declared.

After four largely undistinguished overs, his fifth produced two wickets in three balls, to send Pakistan's batsmen scrabbling for their kit in the dressing-room.

The left-hand opener Salman Butt may have been victim of an indiscretion, chasing at a wide delivery angled across his bows and edged comfortably to Andrew Strauss at second slip.

But there was little the incoming batsman Faisal Iqbal could do against the thing that rose at his throat from the depths like a sea monster.

He fended it off from somewhere near the shoulder of his bat and might, fleetingly, have thought he had got away with it as the ball appeared to be clearing third slip. Unfortunately for him, Paul Collingwood forced himself into the air, clawing higher and higher until his right arm was able to reach upwards and clutch a scintillating catch.

The replacement of Harmison with Liam Plunkett did little to increase the pressure on Pakistan as he struggled with his direction. But, with the close in sight, Farhat, too conscious perhaps of not making a mistake, offered no stroke to a ball that came back down the hill at him and clipped the top of off-stump.

Until the wickets, there had been no hooping swing for Matthew Hoggard or searing pace from Harmison to upset Pakistan's equilibrium after England's batsmen had created a foundation from which they cannot lose the first Test.

Bowling from unfamiliar ends - Hoggard from the Pavilion, ploughing into a stiffish breeze that biffed in from Regent's Park, and Harmison from the Nursery, in his first Test match since the second against India in Mohali such has been the condition of his shins, like a tall ship under sail.

For all their diligence in practice both bowlers, understandably, are ring-rusty, Hoggard having sent down only 22 overs in the month or more since the last Test against Sri Lanka and Harmison suffering heavily against the same batsmen in the one-day series.

Their wayward direction and lack of rhythm showed at first as Butt and Farhat made a bright, 28-run start.

By the close they had reached 66 for three, with Mohammad Yousuf on 33 and the nightwatchman Mohammad Sami yet to score, and at least have seen the initial shine and hardness from the ball.

The pitch is playing true, with no great pace or undue bounce to it - familiar Pakistan conditions - although at times during his marathon 52 overs Danish Kaneria gained enough turn with his wrist spin to encourage the thought that Monty Panesar might flourish later in the game.

But their batting is weakened severely with the loss of Younis Khan, probably for the second Test too, and even the 329 they need to avoid a follow-on seems a distant prospect.

Given the sloppy manner in which England have played much of their cricket recently, their reticence to push on yesterday was understandable.

There are times when it does no harm to remember that this is a game played over five days and that sometimes it needs application rather than flair and bluster to establish a superiority.

To the centuries of Alastair Cook and Paul Collingwood on the first day could be added another by Ian Bell yesterday, a neat, unobtrusive and chanceless innings of precisely 100, the reaching of which, with Panesar for company, was followed immediately by Strauss's declaration.

Guardian Service