"Start of new era" - Twitteratis react to England's 74-run win over Pakistan in 1st Test

England continued their terrific run in Test cricket under the new dawn of Ben Stokes and Brendon McCullum.

The Three Lions defeated Pakistan by 74 runs in the first Test at the Rawalpindi Cricket Stadium on Monday, December 5, in what was their first Test match in the country after 17 years.

In another run-feast game of Test cricket in Rawalpindi this year, the result was inevitable to be determined on the fifth day. The match was evenly poised at the end of Day 4 as Pakistan were in need of 263 runs, while England had to pick eight more wickets.

Anderson dismissed Imam-ul-Haq early on Day 5, when the latter was just two runs short of his fifty. Imam poked Anderson's delivery going down the leg for Ollie Pope to pouch it with a brilliant effort behind the wickets.

Mohammad Rizwan, with his mixed approach of tedious yet aggressive, built an important partnership with Saud Shakeel in the middle as Pakistan finished 169/4 at lunch.

Rizwan departed shortly after lunch and Shakeel followed him to the dressing room after a while. Azhar Ali, who returned after declaring retirement hurt yesterday, and Agha Salman carried the momentum by ticking the runs. The duo forged an unbeaten stand of 59 at the end of tea, with Pakistan at 257 for 5, 86 runs short of the target in the final session of an enthralling Test match.

However, the England bowlers showed trust in their ability to pull things back into their corner. Ollie Robinson made a big statement about his selection in the flat conditions and got the wickets of Azhar and Agha in quick succession.

Senior man James Anderson joined the party with the dismissals of Zahid Mahmood and Haris Rauf before Jack Leach trapped Naseem Shah for LBW as Pakistan crumbled to 268 all out in 96.3 overs.

Here's how cricket fans reacted to England's dominating win over the hosts in the first Test.

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James Anderson becomes third highest wicket-taker in international cricket

With his 4/36 in the second innings, James Anderson surpassed former Indian leg-spinner Anil Kumble (956) in the list of most international wickets. Anderson now has 959 wickets across all formats - 672 Tests, 269 ODIs & 18 T20Is - and he is only behind the late Shane Warne (1001) and Muttiah Muralitharan (1347)