Zarco roars to pole to scupper Fab run

JOHANN ZARCO wrecked Fabio Quartararo’s dominant run as he scorched to pole ahead of today’s Czech Republic MotoGP.

The Esponsorama Racing Ducati rider clocked 1min 55.687secs with a minute of qualifying to spare at Brno yesterday before championship leader Quartararo crashed in an effort to topple his fellow Frenchman.

But Zarco admitted: “I need to use this grid position to start well. I think the race is going to be complicated.”

In Portugal, Jonathan Rea slashed Scott Redding’s points lead in the World Superbike Championship as he cruised to an easy win – while his rival struggled to a seventh-place finish.

CHRIS WOAKES and Jos Buttler ripped a sensational victory out of the hands of Pakistan with the greatest comeback partnership perhaps... since well, last August!

The two all-rounders let their batting brilliance shine as England hunted down a target of 277 to win by three wickets and back up Woakes’s Friday night belief that they could repeat last year’s miracle chase.

In many ways this was a better effort than that remarkable day, when one man carried his team over the line, because this one wasn’t so freakish, it was a strong team finish under pressure.

Woakes and Buttler came together at 117-5 with 160 still needed on a pitch that was helping the bowlers far more than the batsmen, and by the time Buttler departed for 75 there was just 21 more required.

They soaked up pressure, turned down the Pakistan players’ volume and, with Woakes 84 not out, England grabbed a 1-0 lead, despite a 107-run first-innings deficit.

Last summer, it was Ben Stokes’s Ashes miracle in front of a full house at Headingley – this year it was Woakes in front of a sea of empty chairs across the Pennines at Old Trafford.

The two all-rounders are as different as the situations they found themselves in, but their ability to bring about the same result in their own way illustrates their expertise.

Woakes is a bowler first and a batsman second, but he delivered with both strings to first inch the game towards England with the ball on day three and then totally snatch it away from Pakistan with the bat on day four.

Pakistan did plenty of work to put themselves in the box seat midway through the day, but just when it looked like they may rush to a win, they held back by bowling full rather than short and fast.

And with keeper-batsman Buttler alongside Woakes, their 139-run stand in the face of a mercurial bowling attack deserves every plaudit coming their way.

Walking out to the middle at 106-4, there is no doubt Buttler would have been feeling pressure, not only of the situation, but also wanting to make amends for his earlier slip-ups in the field.

He also found out the night before that his father was ill in hospital .

Whereas Pakistan stumper Mohammed Rizwan had been outstanding throughout, talking a sublime catch at the second attempt to remove Ben Stokes and bring Buttler to the middle, the England gloveman had cost his side dear.

He dropped a catch and missed a clearcut stumping off Shan Masood in the first innings that cost 111 runs. But from within the dressing room he has total support.

For every question and for every piece of negativity, this is a moment for Buttler and England to savour, not to put others down, but to lift their man up in recognition of such an exceptional performance when his team needed it most.