Josh Tongue and Ollie Robinson did something England bowlers had not managed in 20 years, then made sure the memory lasted longer than the scoreline. After each took five wickets in Pakistan's first innings, they split the match ball in half.
Tongue finished with 5-46 and Robinson with 5-51 as Pakistan were skittled for 171 after England won the toss in the first Test. By the close in Leeds, England were 112-2, but the day belonged to two seamers sharing a rare landmark and an even rarer keepsake.
The last England pair to take five-wicket hauls in the same Test innings were Steve Harmison and Monty Panesar against Pakistan at Old Trafford in 2006. That makes Tongue and Robinson the first to do it for two decades, a measure of how unusual it is for two bowlers on the same side to dominate an innings so completely that both reach five wickets before the opposition is dismissed.
The ball itself became part of the story. Tongue said Robinson suggested they split it, and the groundstaff did the job after Wayne Bentley took it down. Robinson said the idea came as they were walking off the field, and that the ball was brought back up and split within five minutes. It is not hard to see why both men wanted a piece of it: there are not many halves of a cricket ball, and even fewer tied to a shared five-wicket haul.
There is another layer to Robinson's day. He has been catching up on sleep since arriving at the hotel in Leeds after the birth of Baby Eva in the early hours of last Thursday, and his performance came only days after becoming a father again. Joe Root also got off to an ideal start on the first day of his second stint as England Test captain, but the headline moment belonged to the bowlers and the split ball they chose to keep.
What remains unclear is where that half-ball will end up. Tongue said he would put his piece up somewhere, and that sounds right: this was not just a good day's work for England, but a rare shared milestone made physical before anyone had time to forget it.
