First ball from Bess and he's punched back down the ground by Imam. Wasn't a bad ball, just an aggressive shot. The rest is better from Bess, Imam back in his crease. AND GONE! Superb ball traps Imam and that's a first Test wicket for Bess... or is it? Review coming.

Anderson does well to save a boundary past mid-off, a diving chase taking out the rope but crucially stopping the ball. Spin is coming. Mr Bess, do you thing.

Punch from Imam, off the back foot, gets a good three. Salahuddin adds another two. Run rate picking up a touch, now 3.66.

That's better. Single from Salahuddin and the Imam beats a diving Anderson at mid-off for four. One more single to round off through square leg. Reasons for Pakistan to be cheerful here. 

Maiden. Not an exciting one. This needs livening up a bit.

Imam's strike rate hovering around 40. Adds a single there. Salahuddin then pushes two through point. Flashy this is not. Composed? Yeah, I'd say that's fair.

Maiden for Anderson. Woakes coming in for Broad next.

It's a touch quiet. Salahuddin gets a couple in the gap at fine leg. In fact the pair run well for three.

Salahuddin taking advantage of the lack of third man. That's four! Anderson takes a tumble after the next ball, steady to get up. Wonder how comfortable he is.

Another single for Salahuddin.

Just a single from the over for Salahuddin, played through the off side. A steady start after lunch. Crowd still settling back in.

Like that from Imam, tapped towards square and gets two. Still gloomy overhead.

Broad back, beating Salahuddin a couple of times. Dig in young man. That's better, getting forward with a block. Outside edge goes for four, not very convincing.

No disrespect to Pakistan, but this could be wrapped up today. Still 73 overs left in the day.

Imam still battling away, adds his third boundary to the gap where fine leg is missing.

That's lunch! England's session for sure, Buttler ending with a flourish and then three early wickets. Some properly dark clouds hovering above right now but no rain.

And now you can savour this Dom Bess catch over your own lunch. Back in a bit.

Salahuddin in for his second innings and off the mark straight away. 

Big shout (they're always big with England aren't they), definitely two noises. We'll have a review. Looks like a feather of a glove on it, caught, out! Shafiq gone, very unlucky. Outstanding review to be fair from Root. FOW 42/3

Runs for Shafiq, four with an edge past the cordon and then a square single. Still a lot to do but England's lead is now under 150, on 147.

Such a good catch from Bess. Will pop in the video when available. 20 and just taking one-handers like he's in the park with his mates.

Imam adds two with a nice drive... big appeal! Pad? Nicked? Root not bothered by either. It we missing well to the left.

Imam then clips one for four down to fine leg and moves into double figures. Was a no ball too.

Jimmy around the wicket and tempting the shot. He's poised. Next line is a bit off though and Haris controls that away to deep square leg for four, nicely played.

Bess with a stunner! What a catch son! Diving to his left at at mid-off and he's clutched it one-handed superbly well! FOW 30/2

Anderson works hard to keep a shot from Haris to just three runs. Still fit as a fiddle. That's all from that over. England's lead now 163 runs.

Just the five men in the cordon waiting for Haris. Too far down the leg side though first up and he gets a single.

Thick inside edge from Imam, well run for two. Didn't look that comfortable. 

Big shout. Bairstow thinks there's an inside edge onto the pads and England... ignore him. Two noises but looks pad then bat.

No doubt about the next one! Stumps clattered by Anderson as Azhar misses a straight one, total air shot. Anderson pumped. FOW 20/1

Imam meets a full ball with a good drive to long off. Well played. Trickler down the leg side but no bat. Good start this for the tourists.

Nice start from Azhar, a drive beating Broad to the rope. Two more and then a big appeal for lbw, but that's too high.

Broad with an absolute pearler. Well avoided by Imam. And another! Bit fuller the second time. Excellent bowling and a maiden, Imam a little lucky towards the end after a poor shot attempt.

From the comments by Deryk King...

Unbelievably idiotic shot from Broad, not even watching the ball and no respect whatsoever for a team-mate or the audience. Followed by Anderson’s apparently deliberate feather to slip. If I were Buttler I’d be furious. Time to drop one of these prima donnas to make a point.

Perfect start! Four off the first ball all the way to deep cover. Very nice. Bit of a hurry on the single off the next one but Imam gets home. 

Five leg byes follow, Anderson bowling full and getting his deliveries ushered along. Excellent first over for Pakistan, ten runs.

Bit of a mountain ahead, if we're honest. Anderson to begin from the Football Stand End to Azhar Ali.

Jimmy comes to the party. A late open of the face of the bat and he gets four. Next ball he's gone though, edged to first slip.

Still, a good flurry of runs this morning from England and that's a nice lead. With the cloud cover, Anderson will be in a hurry to get back out there.

Anderson (sensibly) puts Buttler back on strike with a single. Fielder out on the deep misses the next one and it goes for four!

Walloped. Buttler crashes a six over the long on. Faheem livid. Who knows there the ball is. Almost in the rugby ground. That's the 350 for England.

That four to end is better though. Low cutter finds the gap at point for four. So well timed and placed.

But he'll need a new partner. Broad pulls one and that's a sensational grab out in the deep from Abbas! What a catch. FOW 344/9

Buttler's loose now. This could go two ways very quickly. Single for him, single for Broad, and now Buttler's going for it. Back-to-back fours: one a swivelling pull shot square, and then another cover drive. Into the 60s.

Faheem into the attack, one single for Buttler off the first. Broad hangs on for the rest of the over. 

Jos 'Alfred' Buttler.

Buttler's in one-day mode now. A four through extra cover and then he ushers the next ball along over his head for a six! That takes him to 50, England's first of the innings coming with that top edge.

Feel bad for Abbas. He's now 2-78 but has actually bowled rather well. 

Buttler with another single square. Creeping in on that 50. He'll be asking Broad nicely (and possibly Anderson) to get him there.

If he falls short, then we'll enter new territory in Test history.

Broad in and off the mark with a single to square. Buttler well-timed to midwicket for another single.

As for young Curran, bit of a shame to see him out on 20 but Michael Vaughan has high hopes.

Edge from Curran but has it carried to third slip? Third umpire coming in... initial signal is not out.

Looks as though the ball rolls up into the hands and Paul Reiffel overrules the on-field umpires. Very tight. Curran goes for 20. FOW 319/8

Amir continues and if he is in discomfort, he's hiding it very well. Couple of slower, swinging gems sent Buttler's way. Missing the edge though. Maiden. England's lead at 145.

Nice drive from Curran through point and cover. Thumped into the ground and off it goes. 

Abbas coming up with the odd beauty though, including one just there through the gap between bat and pad. Curran survives. 

Amir comes in and after one ball he's down on one knee clutching his shoulder. Hmm. Big grimace on his face.

Buttler nudges one along past his left shoulder for a boundary, and then adds another with a good drive the way of deep extra cover. Lovely.

Repeat ball almost to that early tickler, this time off the pads racing away to the rope. Bit of late movement in. Half a shout, ignored, and that's now 12 off the over.

And we're off. Straight one to start and Pakistan get excited, but not out and the technology shows it's missing. Umpire Rod Tucker with an early win. Buttler quite far down the pitch.

Shorter ball, Buttler pulls that square for a single. Nice final ball from Abbas to Curran, well left.

20 today, and out in the middle playing for England. Could be worse.

Brilliant with the bat on day one, Pakistan coach Mickey Arthur has defended the 19 year-old's bowling figures. He's currently on 1/50.

Yesterday's exclusive from Tim Wigmore and Nick Hoult, in case you missed it, on the news that England are planning to face Ireland in a four-day Test.

Hello! England's very much ahead in this Test match heading into Sunday's action, with a lead of 128 overnight and three wickets remaining.

Jos Butter's rather measured (by his standards) 34 from 67 could be added to in a hurry during this first session.

Here's the day's forecast via the Met Office. Basically, it's better than yesterday. Fellow hayfever sufferers, I wish you godspeed.

England clubbed together to stay in control of the second NatWest Test and give themselves an obvious opportunity to square the series against Pakistan.

Theirs was a curiously collective effort on a rain-shortened day two at Headingley - where after play did not get under way until mid-afternoon, no one could muster a half-century but all contributed with a degree of significance to a stumps total of 302 for seven.

The first-innings lead is therefore 128, and the salvation of a drawn series - rather than seventh defeat in nine Tests - beckons if Joe Root's men can maintain their standards here.

Dom Bess, Root himself and Alastair Cook the previous evening all reached 40 but not 50 - the former stumbling just a single short of adding a half-century as nightwatchman to the one he made in defeat on debut at Lord's last week.

Consolidation was all that was required from England after their dominance on day one.

In the afternoon session, they achieved exactly that despite losing their captain.

Root's was the only wicket to fall, in aggravating circumstances as he pushed out for an attempted drive at a length ball from Mohammad Amir and edged behind.

It was an anti-climax for most of a full-house crowd, gathered in hope Root might choose his home ground to at last re-discover the knack of making hundreds. Instead, he went for 45 - and Bess was joined by Dawid Malan.

With the floodlights in use throughout under heavy cloud cover and the threat of rain never far away, the pair calmly went about their work.

Crucially, the ball did not swing as it had for much of Friday - and a fair pitch contained runs if patience was exercised.

It was, and Bess took his rewards with a series of flat-batted front-foot shots square on the off-side.

Malan drove with impressive timing, down the ground and through the off-side, but fell prey to surprise bounce from Amir with the left-armer's first ball straight after tea - a nasty one which took the shoulder of the bat for an easy catch to slip.

Then Bess had to go too just a single short of a notable achievement, edging an attempted cut at Shadab Khan's leg-spin to a diving Asad Shafiq at slip for 49 - and so missing out on a second half-century in successive innings at the start of his Test career.

England would have lost three wickets for 20 runs had Hasan Ali held a straightforward catch at midwicket when Jos Buttler, on just four, stabbed one there off a thick inside-edge off Shadab.

It was a poor shot, and a major let-off.

Jonny Bairstow helped Buttler add 48 until he became the sixth consecutive batsman to fall between 20 and 50, in his case at the lower end of the scale when he got a thin edge behind off Faheem Ashraf - to the final delivery before the second new ball was available.

Chris Woakes kept Buttler company next, before he too went caught-behind when Mohammad Abbas this time got that new ball to nip away just enough off the pitch.

Buttler held firm to finish unbeaten on 34, and debutant Sam Curran helped him close out the day - hitting two consecutive boundaries in the last over to post the 300 and ensure he too could go to bed happy after his last day as a teenager.

PA