KARACHI: Pakistan’s star performer on day two of the ongoing first Test was undoubtedly their bubbly spinner, Yasir Shah. On Friday, the 30-year old from Swabi became just the 13th leg-break bowler to make it to the famous Honours’ Board at Lord’s with five wickets in England’s first innings.

After the opening day of the four-match series was dominated by Misbah-ul-Haq’s memorable century on his first Test appearance in England, it was Yasir’s turn to steal the limelight from the Pakistan captain, also on his debut on the English soil.

Yasir picked up five wickets for 64 runs in 25 overs on Friday before going onto become the first leggie in 83 overs to claim six or more wickets in a single Lord’s Test innings on Saturday when he got rid of England tailender Steven Finn ending up with figures of 6-72 from 29 overs in the process.

South Africa’s Sid Vogler bagged 7-128 against the English in 1907, followed by big Australian all-rounder Warwick Armstrong, who was a dual type of bowler with occasional spells of leg-spin interspersing useful seamers. As a leg-spinner, he snared 6-35 in England’s second innings of the 1909 Lord’s Test.

Australia’s Clarrie Grimmett, regarded as the first of the legendary leg-spinners, took 6-167 at the famous arena in the 1930 Ashes Test before England’s Walter Robins captured 6-32 against West Indies in 1933.

Remarkably, Yasir is the first leg-spinner since 1967 to claim five wickets in the first innings of a Lord’s Test. Before him, India’s Bhagwat Chandrasekhar took 5-127 and his five-for is the first for this type of bowlers since 1996 when Mushtaq Ahmed — who is accompanying the current team as a bowling coach — snared 5-57.

Other leg-spinners to claim five for more wickets in an innings were England’s Ian Pebbles, who had figures of 5-77 versus New Zealand in 1931, Xen Balaskas, the son of Greek migrants taking 5-49 for South Africa in 1935, followed by Englishman Eric Hollies’ 5-133 against New Zealand in 1949 with compatriot Roly Jenkins claiming 5-116 against West Indies in 1950.

The next man to put his name on the Honours’ Board was English leggie Tommy Greenhough who 5-35 against India in 1959.

Bob Holland of Australia then grabbed 5-68 in 1985 before Mushtaq and Yasir had their moments of glory as proud exponents of the leg-spinning art.

One of the glaring omissions from this list is Test cricket’s most prolific leg-spinner, Shane Warne. The Australian wizard, who picked up a staggering 708 wickets in 145 Tests, made four Test appearances at Lord’s but never took more than four wickets in an innings with 4-57 being his best return on the 1993 Ashes tour. In the same match he claimed 4-102 in the second innings. He then captured 4-64 in 2005.

Moreover, Yasir becomes only the third Pakistani bowler to take six wickets at Lord’s, following all-rounder Mudassar Nazar’s famous 6-32 in England’s second innings of the country’s historic first Test victory at Lord’s in 1982 and current team-mate Mohammad Amir’s 6-84 in the infamous spot-fixing match from six years ago.

Published in Dawn, July 17th, 2016