Nottinghamshire & England paceman Jake Ball is a fan of Test cricket’s Decision Review System, because it meant he got to celebrate his maiden wicket twice.

The 25-year-old, who was recently retained in the squad for the Second Test at Emirates Old Trafford, had the solitary wicket of Azhar Ali to show for his 35 overs of toil at Lord’s.

But the Welbeck Wizard has sufficient experience in first class cricket to know that he’ll bowl much worse and take multiple wickets.

“I bowled reasonably well. I did the job that was asked of me by the captain and was a little bit unlucky not to get a couple more wickets,” he said.

“I had a couple of reviews that didn’t go my way, but I’m sure I’ll get a hang of the system the more games I play.

“The plan was to run up, hit the pitch hard and make the batsman play as much as possible. I was trying to keep hitting the same areas and I did that pretty well.

“When I first saw it I thought it was hitting all three,” he said of the moment the ball thudded into Azhar’s pad in the first innings, knocking the Pakistan number three off his feet.

“The umpire gave it, they reviewed it and the first time I saw it on the screen I thought it was going down.

“Then to see it just clipping leg stump was a massive relief. I got to celebrate the wicket twice, which was nice.

“It doesn’t need to be smashing middle-stump out of the ground to be lbw, it just needs to be clipping. As long as it’s going to knock the bails off, that’s all I’m bothered about.

“It was nice to get it early in my career. It settled me down a bit.”

Ahead of the match at Lord’s, Ball was presented with his first cap by his uncle, England Wicketkeeping Coach Bruce French.

“To receive the cap from my uncle was a really touching moment. It was up there with the first wicket,” he said. “He mentioned how proud he and the whole family are, and that relaxed me.

“Obviously I loved the whole experience of Test cricket. It’s something I’ve been building towards.

“Being in the squads for the Sri Lanka series, I was itching to finally get a game. For it to be at Lord’s made it extra special.”

Ball admits the England dressing room was a disconsolate place in the aftermath of the 75-run defeat, but insists there is life left in the series.

“To have lost the game is not great. The dressing room was obviously a little bit down last night, but there was plenty of positives to take from the game,” he said.

“The way Chris Woakes bowled was incredible, and I think all the other bowlers also stuck to the plan really well.

“If we could have scored a few more runs in the first innings, then who knows where we could have been in the game.

“There are a lot of positives to take into the Manchester Test where hopefully we can turn it around.

“Pakistan have some high quality bowlers, and we’ve got some good batsmen facing them as well.

“The First Test has shown that the series will be a good battle, something I’m really looking forward to.”

 

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