England staged a memorable fightback as Jonathan Trott's magnificent hundred was followed by Stuart Broad's maiden first-class century, which became the highest score by an England No. 9, on a day of wonderfully fluctuating fortunes at Lord's.
Pakistan's Mohammad Amir took four wickets without conceding a run and when he added two more the hosts were 102 for 7, but Trott remained on the crease and with a resurgent Broad as partner, the pair added an unbroken 244 for the eighth-wicket to lead England to 346 for 7 at close on Day Two of the final Test.
The partnership came on the back of an unprecedented failure for the middle order.
Never before had England's batsmen at numbers four, five and six been dismissed for ducks, as Amir ran riot under heavy cloud cover, and it was the fifth time it had happened in Test history.
At the end of the day two outstanding centuries hauled the home side off the spectre of defeat.
Stuart Broad's century was the third by an English batsman at No. 9 and when he reached 123 he passed Gubby Allen's record from 1931, while both he and Trott passed 1000 Test runs.
Trott was rarely troubled because of his technique and judgement. He played late and tight to his body but when he did attack, he did so with conviction.
Trott moved past his previous Test-best of 76 against South Africa in 2008 and into the 90s for just the second time in his first-class career, but managed to keep his composure as he lofted Saeed Ajmal over mid-off then tucked the first ball of Wahab Riaz's spell through midwicket to achieve his century at Lord's.
It was an incredible turnaround by England who were lurching towards embarrassment during the morning session. The middle order was blown away in the blink of an eye as they slumped to 47 for 5 which included the first-ball dismissal of Kevin Pietersen.
