Pakistan v England: Tourists' toil with the ball is as important as batting records

England beat Pakistan with score , but it's the surgical manner in which she fought her way through the home stick that may ultimately decide the first test in Rawalpindi.

In test cricket, runs are for show and wickets are for batter.

It's all very well to slap stacks and stacks of races, breaking enough records to make Roy Castle proud (ask your parents, kids), but it matters little if you don't win not actually the game.

A sapping Saturday in Rawalpindi, with the sun high and the pitch asleep, the England's tireless effort to take seven Pakistani wickets was just as important as the stu 506-4 they racked up on day one.

"We have a captain in Ben Stoke s and coach of Brendon McCullum who don't want draws. We don't play for draws," James Anderson said ahead of the Test.

"With the ball , we' try to take wickets. The captain and the coach made it very clear. Every time you run bowling, it's all about taking wickets. It's not about controlling the pace of execution, it's about how we're going to get 20 wickets."

Which is an admirable goal, but much more difficult to put into practice considering that England have chosen a team with only three front row bowlers in Anderson, Ollie Robinson and Jack Leach, and a versatile skipper Stokes who sent just seven of 136 overs.

They trusted the part-time rotation of Joe Root, Liam Livingstone and Will Jacks, men with first-class bowling averages of 49, 36 and 53 respectively - and Livingstone was unable to play due to a knee injury. /p>

It's a plan England have tried before in the subcontinent, with little success. Ian Blackwell, Samit Patel and Zafar Ansar i to name a few.

In the absence of deep spin reserves, a High pace could have been used to coax a response from the tame box, but Mark Wood was injured and Jamie Overton was overlooked.

On more than one occasion, Robinson had the pace, or lack thereof, for the goalkeeper to reserve wicket Ollie Pope stand up to the stumps.

And yet, in a country where England fired 18 of his previous 24 Tests, they took the wickets which put them on course for another historic Stokes-McCullum era victory.

In March, an Australian attack by Pat Cummins, Mitchell Starc, Josh Hazlewood, Nathan Lyon and Cameron Green took just four wickets in a Rawalpindi Test - and the one of them was sold out.

The fact that England takes seven a day is a testament to its determination, perseverance and creativity.

"Tou t the hard work we put in, we got our just rewards," Root said. "We had to be pretty creative, try to do things differently and think outside the box."

The bowlers never tired or lost. Stokes manipulated and maneuvered his field. Batters were rarely short of catcher company - five, six or even seven.

Robinson was retained until 90 minutes had passed in the morning session. Anderson...